Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara Volume Ii Part 6

There is no regular rainy season in Singapore. Rain falls every month throughout the year, the heaviest falls occurring in August and December.

According to observations carried on during four years, the annual rainfall averaged 93 inches. The tolerably regular distribution of the rain throughout the year imparts to the vegetation a freshness that makes the change of seasons pa.s.s almost unheeded.

In Singapore as elsewhere the members of the _Novara_ Expedition experienced from all cla.s.ses of society the most cordial and hospitable reception. Every one bestirred himself to point out to us everything that was worth knowing, or that the city could present of interest or deserving special attention. After a cursory stroll through the most frequented streets, with their dense crowds of people, which sufficiently proved to us that trade was in fact the chief occupation of the inhabitants, we turned our attention to the shops of some of the Mahometan merchants, when our eyes were dazzled with all the most various products of India.

In one of these we were shown some exceedingly valuable diamonds from Borneo, one of which weighed 17 carats, and was worth 4000 sterling, while another of 19 carats, but less pure and brilliant, was for sale for 2000. The seller, a Mahometan, himself wore on his finger a diamond-ring which our companion estimated at 1000. In the stores of several other merchants we saw the Malay servants sitting cross-legged on the bare floor of the porch, with huge heaps of Spanish dollars before them, which they were busy counting. The Spanish or Mexican dollar is here almost the only medium of exchange, payments being made all but exclusively in that currency, whereas gold, even English, is but sparingly used, and then with ill-concealed reluctance! The utter want of any other recognized medium of exchange than silver makes all extensive money transactions exceedingly onerous, owing to the expense of transmitting the precious metals, in consequence of which any one wis.h.i.+ng to pay in a certain sum of a few thousand dollars in cash, must employ a convoy for the purpose of transporting the money![30]

Although, as already remarked, the chief business of the island is purely commercial, and although, ordinarily speaking, every branch of industry merges in that predominant occupation, there is yet one manufacture in Singapore which calls for most special notice. This consists in the preparation of pearl, or white sago, from the raw state, which is brought from the N.E. coast of Sumatra, and the N.W. coast of Borneo. Almost the whole of the sago of commerce is prepared here, and all but exclusively by Chinese labour. Sago is chiefly obtained from the pith of several species of palm, but more particularly from the _Sagus Rumphii_ and the _Sagus Laevii_, both of which are rather limited in their area of cultivation, and are not, like the cosmopolitan cocoa-nut palm, found in every quarter of the tropical zone, both in the Old and New World, but are indigenous to the Indian Archipelago alone. The trunk of the sago-palm, when felled, is a cylinder of about 20 inches in diameter, and from 15 to 20 feet in length, which, when the woody fibres have been separated, contains about 700 lbs of clear fine fecula. One may form some conception of its extraordinary productiveness on learning that three sago-palms contain as much nutritious matter as an acre of land grown with wheat! One piece of ground of the extent of an English acre planted with sago-palms occasionally yields 313,000 lbs of sago, or as much food as 163 acres of wheat. The sago however is neither as palatable nor as nutritious as it is productive, and nowhere, where rice is in common use, will it be displaced by this article of food. We visited the largest sago manufacture in Singapore, in which the sago, as it comes in the raw state from Borneo and Sumatra, is washed and roasted, when it becomes the pearl sago of commerce. The quant.i.ty thus prepared annually amounts to about 100,000 cwt.

Singapore was also the first place where we found an opportunity of becoming acquainted with opium-smokers, and of observing the noxious effects of this custom, which was forced upon the Chinese for the purpose of compelling commercial relations. Although in almost every street in Singapore there are houses in which opium is sold and can be smoked (the so-called "Licensed opium shops"), there is, in order to keep more control over it, only one single place where the opium is prepared for smoking from the raw material, called by the English the "Opium farm," from which all retail dealers must purchase their supplies of stock.

Before describing our visit to this curious factory we shall indulge in a few observations upon a plant whose intoxicating, poisonous milky sap produces such singular effects upon the human system. The poppy (_papaver somniferum_), is chiefly grown in Hindostan in the districts of Benares, Patna, and Malwa. Its cultivation is exceedingly arduous, and very precarious, since the tender young plants require constant care and attention in the way of repeated watering, as well as weeding and turning up the soil, besides which there is the ever-present danger of its destruction by insects, or its loss through storm, or hail, or untimely rains. The plant blooms in the month of February, and three months later the seed is ripe. The incision into the capsule however is made three or four weeks earlier, so soon, in short, as it is covered with a fine white mealy dust. The instrument employed in this operation has three p.r.o.ngs with very sharp points, with which the plant is carefully scratched. Each plant is thus tapped for three consecutive days, the operation beginning with the first warm beams of the morning sun; the milky sap is sc.r.a.ped off in the cool of the next morning, and on the fourth morning each plant is again tried as to whether it still exudes sap, but usually it proves to have been exhausted. The juice as sc.r.a.ped off in its coagulated form, is put into a cask along with linseed oil, in order not to get too quickly dry, and then is made by hand-kneading into round flat cakes, of about four pounds' weight, and about five inches in diameter, which, enveloped in poppy and tobacco leaves, are spread out to dry in earthen dishes, till ready for purposes of commerce. In this stage the opium is packed in boxes of ten cakes or about 40 lbs, and thus pa.s.ses from the hands of the grower or the speculator at certain fixed prices into those of the agents of the East India Company. The very anxious and precarious cultivation of the poppy must prove far less remunerative to the proprietor of the land than the much easier task of raising tobacco or sugar-cane, and it is only the long-established but most impoveris.h.i.+ng system of payments in advance, pursued by the agents of the East India Company, that keeps the Hindoos engaged in opium cultivation.[31]

At the opium farm in Singapore we saw this same coagulated juice, as obtained from the poppy, converted into opium suitable for smoking, which is called _chandu_, the process consisting in its being exposed to the action of heat in large semicircular bra.s.s pans, strained through filters, and once more exposed to a low heat, until it finally coagulates into a consistency strongly resembling treacle or syrup. The whole manipulation occupies from four to five days. A cattie or ball of this thickened poppy-juice costs the manufacturer about 20 dols. From ten such b.a.l.l.s of the raw sap, or about 40 lbs, which is the usual weight of each "chest,"

as imported from Hindostan, 216 "tiles" or about 18 lbs of opium are obtained upon an average. We saw the Chinese dealer place in one of the scales a Spanish dollar, instead of a regular weight, and measure off a corresponding weight of opium in the other, A _Chi_, weighing about 1/16 oz., the ordinary quant.i.ty consumed by an opium-smoker, costs 17-1/2 cents, or nine-pence. The duty levied upon this manufacture gives the government a revenue of 3000 a month, for the exclusive right of preparing opium fit for smoking, _chandu_, for consumption on the island.

As often as the apparatus is called into activity, the Chinese employed in the preparation of the opium, in pursuance of what seems with them a regular custom at the commencement of any spell of work, commit to the flames, after repeating a certain set of formulas of prayer, a number of octavo-sized leaves (_Tschni-tschni-soa_) of paper printed upon one side only, and occasionally provided in very large quant.i.ties: on these fabrics of the roughest material are printed sometimes prayers in Chinese, sometimes all kinds of drawings, intended to express the wishes of those making the offering, and which ordinarily represent in very sketchy outline those objects which they pray their deities to bestow on them. In thus burning, in a copper vessel specially prepared for the purpose, not unlike the baptismal font in a Christian church, these small slips of paper, the Chinese operative believes that his pet.i.tion ascends to heaven as smoke, and so comes under the cognizance of his protecting G.o.ds.

Similarly in all temples and paG.o.das, large quant.i.ties may be found stored away of these paper intercessors with the Chinese G.o.ds, intended for the use of believers, or rather of those who make profession of faith.

The workmen of the opium farm have a part of their wages paid in opium.

The greater number are themselves opium-smokers, and thus are all the more surely attached to the manufacture. We saw a number of these fellows lying stretched out on straw mats, in wretched filthy-looking dens of rooms, with blue curtains barely concealing them from view, and the spirit-lamp placed conveniently near to enable them from time to time to heat the _chandu_, the smoke of which they inhale through a peculiarly constructed pipe (_Yeu-tsiang_). The quant.i.ty of opium taken up at each dip by the instrument used, a three-cornered, flat-headed sort of needle specially adapted for the purpose, is about the size of a pea. The practised opium-smoker holds his breath for a considerable time, and pa.s.ses the smoke through the nostrils. The taste of the half-fluid juice of the poppy is sweetish and oily, but the odour of the _chandu_ when heated, which one of the workmen addicted to smoking insisted on our regarding as one of the most valuable of perfumes, is so disagreeable as almost to cause nausea. We saw numbers of smokers, athwart the filthy gossamer-like curtains, utterly stupefied, and lying carelessly stretched out on the hard bedsteads, the pipe fallen out of their hands, and the lamp on the table in front of their couch extinguished. They, however, did not want the curtain for the purpose of preventing their being disturbed in the luxurious enjoyment of their beatific dreams; for they continued in a state resembling death itself, from which hardly anything could possibly rouse them so long as the effects of the poisonous drug lasted. Others of the smokers were so affected by it as to have utterly lost their senses, and seemed on the whole entirely indifferent to all that was pa.s.sing around them. One of the workmen, who was in a high state of excitement, and was uncommonly talkative, informed us however that he had to smoke about one s.h.i.+lling's worth of opium ere he could feel its effect, that there was nothing more annoying or insupportable than mere partial stupefaction, when one had no more money wherewith to buy opium so as to be able to get into a proper state of somnolence. The entire system at such times gets into a frightful state of irritation; there is severe headache, a sensation of pressure on the stomach, nausea, in a word all the ill-effects of the use of opium, without any of its more agreeable sensations. The state of intoxication and drowsiness usually lasts from forty to sixty minutes, when consciousness gradually returns, without any ill-effects being experienced at the moment from the inhalation of the poison.

In Singapore, where comparatively high wages are paid, and the Chinese population is the most numerous, the annual consumption of opium amounts to about 330 grains per head. In the Island of Java, where, in consequence of certain limits prescribed by government, the Chinese element amounts to but 1/100th of the entire population, the consumption is hardly forty grains per head. Even in China, where this perilous narcotic is consumed in such enormous quant.i.ties, the amount sold only indicates 140 grains for each smoker, which however is chiefly attributable to the poverty of the populace, by whom this luxury is unattainable. Unfortunately we could get no reliable information as to the number of opium-smokers, and the quant.i.ty of opium consumed, in Singapore. Mr. Allen, a North American missionary, estimates the number of persons who surrender themselves to this practice throughout the Chinese Empire, at from 4-5,000,000, who annually consume about 50,000 chests of opium. The quant.i.ty consumed by each smoker daily varies in an extraordinary degree. At first the beginner cannot inhale above two or three grains at a time, but gradually, as he becomes habituated, the dose increases, till the confirmed smokers consume as much as 100 grains daily!! Many Chinese spend two-thirds of their earnings in the purchase of this drug, which has become for them a necessity of life.

The practice of eating opium in the form of pills, which prevails in every Mahometan country in the East, and has in a special degree been readily adopted by the disciples of the Koran, in consequence of the prohibition of wine, would seem, judging by the researches of physicians, to be much less injurious and much slower in affecting the human system than smoking the opium, or otherwise bringing it directly in contact with the lungs, while the effects of the former practice is likewise different.

We shall have an opportunity, when describing our stay in Chinese waters, to revert to this most remarkable and most profitable, but at the same time most iniquitous, monopoly of the (late) East India Company, which crushes millions of human beings in the most appalling and hopeless of all slaveries, and against the continuance of which the Chinese government has repeatedly but ineffectually set its face. The words of the idol-wors.h.i.+pping Emperor of China, when in 1840 he was solicited to convert the importation of opium into a source of revenue to the state, were worthy of a Christian monarch: "It is true," said the Chinese ruler, "I cannot hinder the importation of this subtle poison; infamous men in the l.u.s.t for gain will out of covetousness or sensuality set at nought the fulfilment of my wishes;--but they shall never induce me to enrich myself by the vices and the wretchedness of my people!"

Despite the very small proportion of Europeans resident in Singapore, and that almost the entire time of those few seems to be absorbed in business, there is nevertheless considerable intellectual activity. Several newspapers in the English language, among which the "Singapore Free Press," edited by Mr. A. Logan, occupies the foremost rank, supply information as to all that is worth knowing in every part of the East Indies, while the "Journal of the Indian Archipelago," which has been for many years so ably and carefully conducted by the well-known and widely-famous J. H. Logan (brother of the editor of the "Press"), is a veritable mine of information for the naturalist, who wishes to make the history of the Indian Archipelago and its inhabitants the object of his study. It contains exceedingly useful data for extending our knowledge of these very remarkable countries, susceptible as they are of such extraordinary development.

The colony also boasts a Museum of Natural History adjoining a library with several thousand volumes, and a reading-room, copiously supplied with newspapers and periodicals, the whole forming what is called the "Singapore Inst.i.tution." This enterprise was founded by shares of 40 dollars each, and is supported by an annual subscription of 24 dollars by each member, which confers the privilege of using the well-selected library of books, and a great number of English and French papers and periodicals. The small ethnographic collection consists chiefly of specimens from Borneo, Sumatra, and the adjoining islands.

Among the educational inst.i.tutions most deserving of attention and recognition must be specially noticed the school for the instruction of Malay boys and girls, under the management and preceptors.h.i.+p of that most deserving missionary, Mr. B. P. Keasberry, who has pursued a career of useful activity in this Archipelago during thirty years past. The parents of the children taken in here have to contribute to their support, and to leave them there for at least ten years, under the affectionate spiritual care of the missionary, and must not remove them till after the expiry of that period. This condition was rendered necessary by the fickleness of the Malay nature, which otherwise would frequently withdraw the children from the supervision of the missionary at the very moment when they were beginning to become amenable to the influences of instruction in Christianity and civilization. The Inst.i.tution is supported partly by voluntary contributions, partly by the profits of a printing business, in which, however, hardly anything is printed except educational and religious works in the Malay language. Mr. Keasberry was so kind as to present us with a small collection of the works thus published during the past year, comprising among others a dictionary of the English and Malay languages, the New Testament, a volume of Natural History, a Manual of Geography, a Universal History, a Biblical History, and numerous educational works in Malay for the use of the pupils.

In the course of a visit we paid to the Police Court we had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with Mr. Windsor Carl, the well-known author of numerous valuable works relating to the Indian Archipelago and the Papuan Negroes, a gentleman whose career in life has been of the strangest, at present holding the position of magistrate in Singapore, where his great experience and his thorough acquaintance with the Malay language must be of the utmost service to government. The audience a.s.sembled in the Court room, in which only causes under 50 Rs. are tried, consisted for the most part of Chinese. Almost all the officials, clerks, inspectors, and policemen were coloured. In one month 414 causes came on for trial, of which 315 were disposed of by the imposition on the culprits of fines amounting in the aggregate to 5975 Rs., but of this sum only 5105 Rs. were realized. The largest number of sentences are pa.s.sed in March, because the Chinese celebrate the New Year on the first day of that month, and accordingly the largest number of cases of a.s.sault, &c., occur at that period. The police _employes_ registered in that period above 100 cases of transgressions of the law. The New Year is however, as must be remembered, the solitary festival which John Chinaman takes out of his appointed work, since recognizing as they do neither Sunday nor feast-day they continue hard at work for all the rest of the year. The majority of decisions refer to prohibited games; and whoever knows the inextinguishable love of the Chinese populace for spending their time in gambling, will readily comprehend how in a single year there occurred above 2000 cases in which the law was violated. While we were in the justice-room, a paper was handed in to the presiding magistrate, in which an English sailor, at that moment in hospital, urgently requested that he might leave the same, inasmuch as he felt no longer sure of his life, owing to the numbers daily brought thither to die of cholera. In fact the hospital, and the localities adjacent, seemed to be the spots most seriously visited by the pestilence, so that the prayer of the pet.i.tioner to be removed from that neighbourhood was not altogether unfounded.

One highly interesting establishment, deserving of universal imitation, is the penal colony for criminals sentenced to transportation for life from all parts of India, and known as "The Convict Settlement." In order to comprehend the object and tendency of this inst.i.tution, it seems necessary to premise certain remarks upon the political relation of Singapore to India at large. Singapore in conjunction with the colony of Malacca, which gives its name to the entire peninsula, and the island of Penang, including the district of Wellesley, form that range of British settlements in the Straits of Malacca which is usually known to the English as "The Straits Settlements." Up to quite a recent date, these colonies, founded almost exclusively in the interests of British commerce, were under the authority of the Indian government, and were in fact controlled from Calcutta. To the Directors of the East India Company, however, these settlements, of whose future destiny the mother country has. .h.i.therto taken but little heed, notwithstanding their enormous political and commercial importance, appeared to be specially adapted as a place for maintaining common criminals, as also the more dangerous cla.s.s of political offenders, and accordingly converted these settlements into penal colonies for the Indies, of which that of Singapore is the most important.

The director of this inst.i.tution, Captain McNair, had the kindness to accompany the members of the Novara expedition through the extensive buildings, for the most part only one storey high, but well adapted for this purpose, and to furnish us with much information on the various particulars and special matters of interest relating to the establishment.

Ever since the year 1854, the wretched, confined, wooden huts thatched with straw, in which up to that period the unfortunate criminals were confined, have been removed, and in their stead lofty, airy, good-sized apartments have been subst.i.tuted. At the period of our visit in April 1858, there were over 2000 transported for life, and 245 sentenced to various terms of from five to ten years, confined here. All the public buildings of the island, churches, hospitals, barracks, works in the streets, sometimes constructions of a most expensive nature, were executed throughout by criminals. After sixteen years' good conduct, the prisoner was ent.i.tled to a "ticket of leave," authorising him to settle within the jurisdiction of the island as a free colonist, coupled with the condition of presenting himself once a month before the superintendent of the settlement. In case of bad conduct, or failure, or irregularity in fulfilling such stipulations, these concessions are revoked. All the overseers of the convict settlement, who receive monthly pay at the rate of from one to two dollars, are prisoners who have already given proof of their desire to return to a better mode of life, and it is well worth remark, that the 2000 convicts, consisting for the most part of the very dregs of the various Indian races, and condemned for grave crimes to perpetual imprisonment, are under the charge of a single white turnkey, and by him maintained in perfect order and propriety of demeanour. Besides this one official there is only a small detachment of Indian soldiers, from twelve to fifteen in number, stationed at the settlement as a measure of precaution. The best evidence of the excellent system on which this inst.i.tution is administered, will be found in the published reports of its health, from which it appears that of the 2000 there confined, there were but forty sick at the very period when the cholera was committing such terrific ravages in the town among the poorer cla.s.ses, and the change of the monsoon had been accompanied by great sickness and general unhealthiness. The convicts go to work at six every morning, and return to the barracks about 4 P.M., the rest of the day being spent in preparing their victuals, consisting of rice, vegetables, cayenne-pepper, and fruit.

As most of those confined are Hindoos and profess Brahminism, they bathe several times a day, in a large tank filled with excellent water. This wise religious custom must in such a sultry climate conduce in a marked degree to the preservation of their health, by its beneficial and refres.h.i.+ng action upon the frame.

Some of the convicts are also employed in manufacturing cordage, ropes, twine, &c., of the fibres of the wild plantain (_Musa textilis_), the Rame-shrub (_Boehmeria nivea_), and the wild pine-apple (_Bromelia Ananas_ or _Anana.s.sa Sativa_). All these textures are of excellent quality, and possess all the best properties of Russian hemp-fabrics, at a considerable reduction of cost.

In the dormitories the convicts are not cla.s.sified by nationalities as during the labours of the day, but according to the nature of the offences for which they are incarcerated, so that in one division all the thieves are together, in another all the homicides, in a third all those convicted of arson, &c. Although from a psychological point of view much might be urged against the judiciousness of such a system, yet, as we were informed, this method of confinement by cla.s.sification of offences exercises no prejudicial effect upon the moral amelioration of the convicts, but on the contrary most encouraging results have been observed to arise from its operation. Among others we were told of a Hindoo from the Malabar coast, a convict for life, who after sixteen years'

confinement received permission to settle on the island as a free colonist. By industry, ability, and some fortunate speculations, this man in the course of years acquired a large fortune. He now felt an intense yearning to revisit his own home, and expressed his willingness to present a large portion of his newly acquired wealth for such a permission. But the law was explicit upon this point. Only a free pardon from the Governor-general of India can as a rule avail to make such an exception, which is of but rare occurrence. This he actually succeeded in obtaining after repeated supplications, and this "fortunate unfortunate" was at last permitted to return to his longed-for home. It is worth noting that of the 2245 prisoners, only fifty are of the female s.e.x, chiefly Hindoo women from Bengal. Among those imprisoned while we were there, we remarked three white men, who had been sentenced to several months' confinement for riotous conduct and drunkenness. Surrounded as they were by these bronzed half-savage Hindoo offenders, these men made a doubly painful impression upon Europeans.

As the prevalence of disease in the town and harbour made it especially desirable that we should as speedily as possible change our quarters, in order not to be surprised by a visit on board from a guest so formidable, we made all possible efforts to complete with the utmost dispatch the revictualling of the s.h.i.+p, and transact whatever other business was necessary. For this purpose we were recommended in several quarters to employ a Chinese merchant, whose name is already favourably mentioned by Commodore Wilks on the occasion of his visiting Singapore in 1842. This was Whampoa, a s.h.i.+p-chandler, who indeed in similar departments of trade carries on by no means insignificant compet.i.tion with the long-established English firms. His business is unquestionably the most extensive in this line in Singapore, and furnishes a striking example of what Chinese industry, economy, and perseverance are capable of. Immense quant.i.ties of provisions and s.h.i.+p-stores are acc.u.mulated in his extensive warehouses, so that he can supply orders to any extent in an incredibly short s.p.a.ce of time. Within two days, Whampoa had completely victualled the s.h.i.+p for six months, besides supplying her from the adjoining stream with 100 tons of good water, which was brought alongside in boats specially constructed for the purpose, and thence pumped through hose into the iron water-tanks in the hold, an operation which in any European port would have taken thrice the time required here. Moreover all the articles supplied by Whampoa were of the best quality, and proportionally moderate in price. He employs none but Chinese, with long tails, and black silk apparel. All the books are kept in the Chinese language, and even the additions and subtractions are not made in the European method, but by the Chinese _counting_ board, that is, by s.h.i.+fting a number of wooden beads or rings, which run in different rows, and have a variety of values. This reckoning-board consists of an oblong frame, divided in its length by a part.i.tion into unequal divisions, in the larger of which are hung five, in the smaller two, beads upon metal cross wires. Each wire with the seven beads running upon it const.i.tutes a single row, and in each such row, a single bead of the smaller division is equal in value to the five corresponding beads in the larger compartment; while, just as in the Russian reckoning-board, each row represents a value tenfold greater or less with reference to the two arms adjoining it on either side. On the Chinese board the number of cross wires is not always the same, but depends upon the extent of the calculations intended to be made upon it.[32]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Chinese Counting Board.]

Accordingly when a Chinese wishes to make a calculation upon his reckoning-board, he lays it crosswise before him, with the large compartment next himself, pushes the beads of the two divisions to the edge of the frame, whence, as the process of calculation may require, he s.h.i.+fts them into the middle against the part.i.tion-wire, or pushes them back again. In the former case the beads are said to "count on the board," in the latter to be "off the board." Consequently, in order to have 1, 2, 3, and 4 "counting," a corresponding number of beads in the larger compartment must be pushed away from himself till they reach the part.i.tion; to mark 5, he similarly draws towards himself a bead in the smaller compartment, and as 6, 7, 8, and 9 are formed by the addition of 5 and 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively, these will be marked by adding one bead from the lesser compartment to the requisite number of beads in the greater. The tens are indicated by the beads of the next wire to the left; the hundreds by the next again to that, &c.

Within his own house, Whampoa lives entirely in the European fas.h.i.+on.

Plentifully blessed with this world's goods, he displays a degree of luxury such as we are unaccustomed to see save in the most elevated circles of society. One of his properties, which is several miles in circ.u.mference, has a s.p.a.cious, elegantly furnished mansion with a splendid colonnade, a beautiful flower-garden, and a perfect menagery of useful domestic animals. Within the house all the arrangements are European, with the exception of the oval doors, communicating between the great saloon and the antechambers, which are pushed into the wall on either side, and have a very surprising effect. In the evening, especially when the saloon is illuminated, if a person pa.s.ses through this oval entrance, the effect is as of a life-size portrait set in a golden frame. It would not be a bad idea to introduce this Chinese form of door-way into our European residences and country-seats, and it is a.s.suredly not the only improvement in the decorative art which we could borrow with advantage from the Chinese. Whampoa's own favourite habitation is about four miles outside the town, and presents a curious admixture of European comfort and taste with Chinese notions of ornament. In the saloons, adorned with a quant.i.ty of neat fancy ornaments, are suspended from the walls verses and proverbs of the most renowned Chinese poets, all written on long elegantly ill.u.s.trated rolls of paper. Our host also showed us a variety of objects which had been presented to him by foreign s.h.i.+p captains, officers of the navy, and even singers, as the late Mrs. Catherine Hayes Bushnell, whom he had shown much attention to. A banquet, to which we were invited by this hospitable Chinese to meet a number of the most prominent commercial magnates of the colony, was served entirely in the European style. The viands were cooked by a Chinese cook, in the English and French styles, only the dessert came part from j.a.pan, part from China, and consisted of a variety of fruits, which were utterly unknown to the eye and the palate of the European guests. Our Chinese host seemed quite at home in doing the honours. Although outwardly a Chinese of the most orthodox stamp, with shaven head, (except the long tail reaching almost to the earth,) and his body robed in a black silken stuff, he drank to each of his guests in good old English style, and seemed as little afraid of Sherry as of Champagne.

Indeed, we even had toasts, in the course of which this Chinese friend to foreigners remarked in English, that any amelioration of the present critical condition of his native land, can only be effected by the progressive influence of the British government. Whampoa is in all probability the first Chinese who has sent his son to Europe.

On the very last day of our stay in Singapore, a melancholy accident occurred on board. One of our sailors named Rossi, while unbending a sail for the purpose of repair, fell from the fore-yard on the forecastle, where he lay insensible, and died a few hours afterwards. Latterly repeated instances had occurred at short intervals, of the sailors, while working at various elevations, losing hold and falling on deck, but none of these had had such a tragical result as the present, and a few slight injuries was all the penalty the sufferers received for their carelessness. Singularly enough, such accidents mostly occur to the able seamen, because that cla.s.s usually feel themselves as secure while resting on the foot-ropes, and working among the masts and sails, as on the ground itself, and from their carelessness come much more frequently to grief, than their comrades less experienced in man[oe]uvring among the cordage.

Rossi was reverently committed to the earth in the Catholic burying-ground of Singapore, and arrangements were at the same time made for the erection of a small grave-stone over his distant resting-place, informing the visitors to this "Court of Peace," that below reposes a member of the _Novara_ Expedition, who had lost his life in the discharge of his duties.

As we were now at the season of the change of monsoon, at which period the always difficult navigation of the narrow seas between Singapore and Batavia demands an unusual degree of carefulness, in consequence of frequent squalls, we engaged a pilot, who for a stipulated sum of 175 dollars was to convoy us to the next station on our voyage. Captain Burrows, as our pilot was named, had the reputation of being a specially competent, thoroughly trustworthy person, who for a long period had navigated these waters in his own s.h.i.+p, and, as we were informed, had, owing to some unfortunate speculations, been compelled to become a pilot of other vessels, after having for years sailed in command of his own s.h.i.+p. He had already come on board with his traps, but, as wind and tide were both unfavourable, he obtained permission to return to sh.o.r.e till sunset. This however the pilot did not do, and on the following morning, finding he did not come off despite our signals, we set sail without him about 9 A.M. with favourable wind and tide. No one could account for the default of a pilot so strongly recommended on all hands, particularly as all his baggage had remained on board, and must now of course make the voyage to Batavia. For a moment we conjectured that he had immediately on landing been seized by the dread distemper, only it seemed improbable we should not have been informed of such a catastrophe. And in fact it afterwards appeared that his having missed us was entirely due to his own inattention.

We at first had intended to pa.s.s through the narrow strait of Rhio,[33] by which the route is materially shortened, but as the squally weather had fairly set in, while the breeze had crept round to the S.E., and the tide set strong to the northwards, we abandoned this plan, and decided on sailing through the channel between Horsburgh light-house and Bintang, so as to pa.s.s to the eastward of this island as far as Graspar Straits, which however we only reached the following day, owing to light fitful breezes from the northwards. So soon as we entered Gaspar Straits we found the sea, which is here of no great depth, never exceeding 25 fathoms, partly covered with trunks of trees and sea-weed, while the water had lost its transparency and was of a dirty green colour.

At 10 A.M. of the 25th April, we crossed the equator for the third time, and the same day about 11 P.M. were in sight of the rocky island of Tothy, a rain-squall from the N.E. blowing at the time. We pa.s.sed between this island and the dangerous because invisible Vega Rock, just below the surface of the sea, and found ourselves in an archipelago of islands and shoals requiring the utmost vigilance in navigating s.h.i.+ps of large size.

But the moon, "the seaman's friend," shone brightly at night, and the well-known transparency of the air in tropical countries enabled us even during the hours of darkness to make out with perfect distinctness islands lying 25 to 30 miles distant, so that we were by these means, coupled with occasional casts of the lead, enabled on every occasion to make out with sufficient exactness at what point we had arrived. We were so lucky as to have never once throughout this intricate navigation been compelled to cast anchor (as is so frequently the case here), and thus succeeded in overhauling in Gaspar Straits more than one merchantman, that was a far better sailer than the _Novara_.

On 30th April in 2 48' S., and 107 16' E., we celebrated the anniversary of our departure from Trieste, with hearts filled with grat.i.tude to the ill.u.s.trious projector of an expedition devoted to such lofty aims.

Although during our stay in Singapore the cholera had not alone carried off its victims in the town, but also in the harbour, especially in the screw corvette _Niger_, anch.o.r.ed in our immediate vicinity, which lost at the rate of about a man daily till she changed her moorings, and ultimately had to put to sea (which under such circ.u.mstances gives hope from the very first for a change for the better in the requisite sanitary conditions for restoring to health), yet the crew of the _Novara_ seemed destined to escape the slightest evil effects from our six days' stay in this plague-stricken harbour. But the result did not justify these expectations. Five days after our departure from Singapore, just as we were entering Gaspar Straits, one of the s.h.i.+p's boys fell ill with all the symptoms of the Asiatic pestilence, and two days after the man appointed to attend him was similarly seized. Every necessary precaution was taken, the crew were kept as much as possible on deck, the band played frequently, in order to keep up cheerfulness, and thus by great good fortune the malady was confined to the two individuals seized. The attendant ere long recovered, but the lad, after the choleraic symptoms had subsided, gradually fell into a typhoid state, under which, despite the utmost medical skill, he succ.u.mbed on the afternoon of May 4th. Owing to the rapidity with which decomposition sets in in organic structures in these hot lat.i.tudes, it was at once arranged that the body should be committed to the deep the same evening. It was the first occasion throughout the voyage that we had to perform this sad but most impressive ceremony. The officers and crew mustered on the deck. The body wrapped in an ensign lay upon a platform, close to the man-ropes on the starboard side. The chaplain prayed over the corpse of one so young, about to rest in the bosom of ocean far from friends and family, after which there was a dull hollow sound; the sea had got his prey, the waves closed with sullen glee over their booty,--and all was over!

In the course of the pa.s.sage we also celebrated a funeral service on board for Austria's great, never-to-be-forgotten commander, Field-marshal Radetzky, of whose death we had shortly before been apprized. As far as circ.u.mstances admitted, everything was done to celebrate this solemn duty in a befitting manner.

Several times during this part of our voyage, owing to the slight depth, averaging only 14 fathoms, of the Gaspar Strait, we observed sea-snakes basking on the surface of the sea, and letting the waves roll them lazily forward, several of which, about four feet long, were caught in a common insect-net.

At last, on the afternoon of May 5, we anch.o.r.ed in the roads of Batavia, in 6-1/2 fathoms, mud bottom. The aspect of the roads, especially in bad weather, is rather melancholy, the coast being low and swampy, and densely covered with mangrove-bushes, through which glittered a portion of the red-tiled roofs of the lower ancient city of Batavia, now abandoned on account of its insalubrity. Under a more cheerful sky the country round would of course a.s.sume a more agreeable and even imposing appearance, when the outline of the gigantic volcanoes of Java come into view in the background, with their heavenward towering peaks, partly covered with snow, permitting us to form some faint conception of the prodigality of Nature in this, the most beautiful island of the Malay Archipelago.

In the roads of Batavia we found much less bustle and animation than one could antic.i.p.ate, considering the favourable situation and immense importance of the place. A short distance from us lay the Dutch frigate _Palembang_, carrying the flag of a Vice-admiral, and the steam-corvette _Groningen_, besides which we counted some sixty foreign merchantmen, and over a hundred native boats and coasting vessels. This rather small evidence of commercial activity is the more noticeable when one has just come from the free port of Singapore, where several hundred s.h.i.+ps are always lying at anchor, sporting the flags of every sea-faring nation, without taking account of the almost innumerable Chinese and Malay coasters, trading between Singapore and the other islands of the Sunda Archipelago. Moreover, there are here no small boats plying to and fro, because the communications between the city and the roadstead being over a s.p.a.ce requiring an hour and a half to traverse, the transit is necessarily dear, and remains therefore confined within as small limits as possible.

For a small boat with two rowers from the roads to the landing-place the charge is from four to five florins (6_s._ 8_d._ to 8_s._ 4_d._), and 3-1/2 florins (5_s._ 10_d._) more for a vehicle to transport them to the town. For this reason no artisans, trades-people, or washerwomen will come off to where the s.h.i.+pping is at anchor, to take orders--every commission of whatever nature must be executed in the city itself. Here we lay at anchor, an Austrian frigate, surely a most unwonted visitant, from the afternoon till the following morning without one single boat coming off to visit us!

FOOTNOTES:

[27] City of Lions, from Singha, the Sanscrit for Lion, a t.i.tle of Indian princes, which we again meet with in Singhala, the kingdom of Lions, as Ceylon is called in ancient records and histories.

[28] Captain Alexander Hamilton's "New Account of the East Indies, 1688-1723." Edinburgh, 1727. 8vo, Vol. II., p. 63.

[29] From this shrub is prepared the drug _Kino_, once much used in the Pharmacop[oe]ia, but now displaced by _catechu_.

[30] A similar system prevails to this day throughout Hindostan, where the necessity for convoy of specie forms one of the most important items of expense in the maintenance of local police, outlying military stations, &c. And unfortunately such a policy reacts upon the respect of the natives for British rule, for seeing that even the government requires such convoys, they naturally presume that government feels itself insecure, and hence refuse to co-operate in the development of Indian resources.

[31] The net produce of an acre of land grown with poppy amounts to about 20 or 30 rupees, producing about 30 lbs of opium. The oil extracted from the seed-vessels of the plant gives a return of from 2 to 3 rupees per acre.

[32] Among the valuable contributions of the Russian Emba.s.sy to Pekin, respecting China, its people, its religion, its political inst.i.tutions, its social peculiarities, &c., there is one long and very copious treatise upon the Chinese reckoning-board, and the method of using it. See the German translation of the work by Dr. Karl Abel, and F. T. Mecklenburg.

Berlin, F. Heinicke, 1856, vol. i. p. 295.

[33] The Rhio group of islands is about 50 miles S.E. of Singapore, the most important of which is Bintang, with a town of the same name.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Javanese Weapons.]