i'ii~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I i.i A S~IAMESE PRINCE AND AITTENDANT THE STRAITS OF MALACCA, INDO-CHINA, AND CHINA; OR, TEN YEA R S' TRA VELS, ADO VENT URES, ANID RESIDIENVCE ABROAD. By J. THOMSON, F.R.G.S., AUTHOR OF'ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHINA AND ITS PEOPLE. II.LUSTRATED WITH UPWARD OF SIXTY W0OOD ENGRAVINGS BY J. D. COOPEIR, FROM THEIL AUTHOR'S OWN SKETCHES AND PHIOTOGRAPHS. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBIISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. I87 5 PREFACE. THE accompanying recollections of my travels are addressed to those readers-I believe there must be many-who feel an interest in the remote regions over which my journeys extended, and in that great section of the human family which peoples the vast area of China-a section which, through the agency of steam and telegraphy, is being brought day by day into closer relationship with ourselves. I have endeavoured to impart to the reader some share in the pleasure which I myself experienced in my wanderings; but, at the same time, it has been my care so to hold the mirror up to his gaze, that it may present to him, if not always an agreeable, yet at least a faithful, impression of China and its inhabitants; and of the latter, not only as I found them at home on their native soil, but also as we see them in our own colonial possessions, and in other lands to which emigration has carried them. Since the days of the great Venetian traveller, perhaps no epoch in the history of that quarter of the vi PREF~A CE. globe has been more full of interest than the present. At last the light of civilisation seems indeed to have dawned in the distant East; with its early rays gilding the little island-kingdom of Japan, and already penetrating to the edges of the great Chinese continent, where the gloom of ages still broods over the cities, a dark cloud that lifts but slowly, and yields unwillingly to the daylight that now floods the shore, but which soon, perhaps, may be rent and dissipated in the thunders of now impending war. Certain it seems that China cannot much longer lie undisturbed in stalt iuo. Her deeply reverenced policy of inactivity and stagnation has brought floods, famine, pestilence, and civil wars in its train; it cannot sink the toiling masses to yet lower depths of misery, or stay the clamours of multitudes wailing for sustenance while the rivers run riot over their fertile plains, and the roads have been converted into watercourses. The rulers meantime, with a blind pride, are arming a beggarly soldiery to fight for nothing that is worth defending, and Japan-in the vindication of her own rights, and in the interests of humanity-has planted a small but disciplined army on what is really an integral portion of the Chinese soil. To these few words let me add that, with a view to supply not merely a pleasant readable book, but information as complete as it is trustworthy, I have in PR~EFA CE. vii the latter part of the present work reproduced and amplified some passages which I had already given to the world in my'Illustrations of China and its People,' passages which I have thought to be of some importance, but yet which could not reach the great body of general readers in my larger and more costly work. J. T. BRIXTON: NOV. I874. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE The Straits of Malacca —The Dutch Operations at Acheen, in Sumatra -Penang; its Hills, Foliage, Flowers, and Fruit-The Klings, Malays, and Chinese of Penang-Occupations of the ChineseThe Chinaman abroad-A Descendant of the early PortugueseHospitality-A Snake at a Ball. r CHAPTER II. A Visit to Quedah-Miden missing-The Rajah's Garden-Province WTellesley —Sugar and Tapioca Planting-Field Labour-A baffled Tiger-Wild Men-An Adventure in Province Wellesley... 23 CHAPTER III. Chinese Guilds; their Constitution and Influence-Emigration from China —A Plea for unrestricted Female Emigration-The Perak Disturbances -Chinese Tin-mining- Malacca - Singapore - Its Commerce and People —Stuffing an Alligator-The Horse-breaker -Chinese Burglars —Inland Scenery —A Foreign ResidenceAmusements-A Night in the Jungle-Casting Brazen VesselsJacoons.'.. ~ ~ 44 CHAPTER IV. Siam-The Menam River-Bangkok-Buddhist Temples-The King, Defender of his Faith-Missions-Buddhist Priests —The Priest in his Cell-The first King's Visit to the Wats-The Court of the Dead-Chinese Speculator investing in a Corpse-The Krum-mun-alongkot-An Inventor wanted-Taking the King's Portrait-The King describes the Tonsure Ceremony —The King's Request-Mode of administering Justice-Gambling-Floating Houses-A Trip to Ayutbia —Creek Life-Visit to Petchiburee. 78 x CONTEVNYS. CHAPTER V. PAG;E An Expedition to Cambodia-Bang Phra-kong Creek-Prairie on fire-A Foreign Sailor-Wild River Scenery —-Aquatic Birds — Kabin-Kut's Story to the Chief-A Storm in the Forest-The Cambodian Ruins-Their Magnitude-Siamrap-Nakhon WatIts Symbolism —The Bas-reliefs and Inscriptions-The Hydraheaded Snake-The Ancient Capital, Penompinh-Tie King of Cambodia —Dinner at the Palace-The whole Hog-Overland to Kamput-Pir tes-Mahomet's Story-T he Fossil Ship -The Voyage up the Gulf of Siam.... I 8 CHAPTER VI. Saigon; its Harbour —The Town-The Resident Foreign Community-Cholon, the Chinese Town —River Dwellings-Customs of the Cochin Chinese-Chinese Traders-The Cochin Chinese Village of Choquan-The Sorcerer-Plaine des TombeauxPetruski..... 164 CHAPTER VII. Hongkon-Description of the Island-The City of Victoria-Its present Condition-Its Foreign and Native Population-The Market-place-Hongkong Artists-Grog- shops-Tai-ping-shanExpense of Living-A strange Adventurer-A Mormon Missionary... 179 CHAPTER VIII. Snakes in Hongkong-A Typhoon —An Excursion up the North Branch of the Pearl River-Fatshan-The Fi-lai-sz MonasteryThe Mang-tsz-hap, or Blind Man's Pass- apids-Akum's Ambition-The Kwanyin Cave-Harvest-From' San-Shui to Fatshan in a Canoe-Canton-Governor Yeh's Temple-A Tea FactorySpurious Tea-Making Tea-Shameen —Tea-tasting... 212 CHAPTER IX. Canton-Its general Appearance-Its Population-Streets-ShopsMode of transacting Business —Signboards-Work and WagesThe Willow-pattern Bridge-Juilin, Governor-General of the two Kwang-Clan Fights-Hak-kas-The Mystic Pills-Dwellings of the Poor-T-he Lo-hang-tang-Buddhist Monastic Life-On board a Junk....242 CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER X. PAGE The Charitable Institutions of China-Macao -Description of the Town - Its Inhabitants - Swatow - Foreign Settlement - Chaochow-fu-Swatow Fan-painters — Modellers-Chinese Art-Village Warfare-Amoy-The Native Quarter-Abodes of the Poor-Infanticide- Manure-pits - Human Remains in Jars - LekinRomantic Scenery-Ku-lang-su —The Foreign Settlement.. 271 CHAPTER XI. Takow Harbour, Formosa-La-nmah-kai —Difficulties of Navigation-Tai-wan-fu-The Taotai-His Yamen-How to cancel a State Debt —The Dutch in I66I - Sylvan Lanes - Medical Missions-A Journey to the Interior-Old Watercourses-Broken Land-Hak-ka Settlers —Poah-be - Pepohoan Village - Baksa Valley-The name' Isla Formosa' —A Long March-The Central Mountains-Bamboo Bridges-' Pau-ah-liau' Village-The Physician at Work —Ka-san-po Village-A Wine-feast-Interior of a Hut-Pepohoan Dwellings-A Savage Dance-Savage Huntinggrounds-La-lung Village-Lakoli Village-Return Journey.. 300 CHAPTER XII. The Japanese in Formosa-Cause of the Invasion-The River Min-Foochow Arsenal —Chinese Gun-boats-Foochow City and great Bridge-A City of the Dead-Its Inhabitants-BeggarsThieves-Lepers —Ku-shan Monastery-The Praying Bull-The Hermit-Tea Plantation on Paeling Hills-Voyage up the MinShui-kow - An Up-country Farm - Captain Cheng and his Spouse-Yen-ping City —Sacrificing to the Dead-Shooting the Yen-ping Rapids-A Native Passenger-boat... 345 CHAPTER XIII. Steam Traffic in the China Sea-In the Wake of a TyphoonShanghai —Notes of its Early History-Japanese Raids-Shanghai Foreign Settlement-Paul Si. or' Sii-kwang-ke' —Shanghai City -Ningpoo Native Soldiers-Snowy Valley-The MountainsAzaleas-The Monastery of the Snowy Crevice-The Thousand Fathom Precipice-Buddhist Monks-The Yangtsze. KiangHankow-The Upper Yangtsze-Ichang-The Gorges- The Great Tsing-tan Rapid — Mystic Mountain Lights-A Dangerous Disaster Kwei-fu-Our Return-Kiukiang-Nanking; its Arsenal-The D)eath of Tsing-kwo-fan-Chinese Superstition.... 397 xii COiVTENVTS. CHAPTER XIV. PAGE Chefoo-The Foreign Settlement-the Yellow River-Silk-Its Production-Taku Forts —The Peiho River-Chinese ProgressFloods in Pei-chih-li-Their Effects-Tientsin-The Sisters Chapel Condition of the People-A Midnight Storm-Tung-chow-Peking -The Tartar and Chinese Divisions of the Metropolis —Its Roads, Shops, and People —The Foreign Hotel-Temple and Domestic Architecture-The Tsungli Yamen-Prince Kung, and the High Officers of the Empire-Literary Championship- — The Confucian Temple-The Observatory-Ancient Chinese Instruments-Yang's House-Habits of the Ladies-Peking Enamelling-Yuen-MingYuen —Remarkable Cenotaph-A Chinese Army-Li-hung-chang The Inn of'Patriotic Perfection'-The Great Wall-The Ming Tombs...... 469 APPENDIX. THE ABORIGINAL DIALECTS OF FORMOSA. 530 DIURNAL LEPIDOPTERA OF SIAM, COLLECTED BY THE AUTHOR AND NAMED BY H. W. BATES, ESQ. F.L.S. &c. ~ ~ 545 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FULL-PA GE ENGRA VINGS, x. A SIAMESE PRINCE AND ATTENDANT... Fro/iSiSzeCe. 2. CHINESE MERCHANTS... o face p. 56 3. THE KING OF SIAM'S STATE BARGE.. 86 4. ANCIENT CAMBODIAN BAS-RELIEF, NAKHON WATY., 144 ~. VIEW OF CHOLON, COCHIN CHIINA... 9 170 6. A VILLAGE ROAD, COCHIN CHINA..., 72 7. A TYPHOON IN HONGKONG HARBOUR. 214 8. YEH'S TEMPLE, CANTON..,, 232 9. A STREET IN CANTON..., 248 ro. A PAVILION IN PUN-TING-QUA'S GARDEN., 254 I I. THE WILLOW-PATTERN BRIDGE...,, 256 12. TEMPLE OF THE FIVE HUNDRED GODS...,, 264 13. DECK OF A CHINESE JUNK..,, 270 14. CHILDREN AT PLAY. (Fropin a Chinese Drawizg).,, 282 I5. SHui-Kow......,, 386 16. THIE DREAM. (CGiinese Drawinlg)...., 422 17. SUNG-ING-DAY FALL, SNOWY VALLEY. 424 I8. THE MI-TAN GORGE, UPPER YANGTSZE..,, 454 19. A MINING VILLAGE, HUNAN PROVINCE. s 456 20. ONE OF THE INNER GATES OF PEKING..., 496 21. GREAT GATEWAY, TEMPLE OF CONFUCIUS.., 516 22. CHINESE GENTLEMAN'S GARDEN. C. 20 23. CANTONESE BOATWOMIAN, NINGPO WOMAN, PEPOHOAN, TARTAR...., 522 24. MAKING ENAMEL) PEKING... 524 25. WAN-SHOW-SHAN... 526 xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRA TIONS. ENGRA VINGS IN TEXT. PAGE I. MALAYS SELLING DURIANS....... 9 2. MALAY BOY.... II 3. CHINESE COOLIE....14 4. A CHINESE CONTRACTOR... I8 5. A NEW TYPE OF MAN.... 19 6. MALAY HUT..... 32 7. PURSUED BY A TIGER... 36 8. CHINESE LABOURERS FROTM THE KWANGTUNG PROVINCE. 49 9. CHINESE TAILORS... 63 TO. JACOONS.........76 11. SIAMESE BUDDHIST PRIEST. 82 12. SIAMESE LADY....... 92 13. DANCING GIRLS....... -IO I4. INTERIOR OF WESTERN GALLERY, NAKHON WAT. 142 I 5. CAMBODIAN FEMALE HEAD-DRESS. ANCIENT SCULPTURE. 143 I6. ANCIENT ARCH AT KEW-iUNG-KWAN, NANKOW PASS. 147 J7. UNFINISHED PILLARS, NAKHON WAT... 49 I8. SCULPTURED TOWER IN NAKHON THOM, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF CAMBODIA..... II I9. HONKONG, FROM KELLET'S ISI,AND...... I8I 20. A FAMILY PARTY, KOWLOON.. 184 21. LOOKING NORTH FROM THE PO-LO-HANG TEMPLE, KWA.NG-TUNG....- 225 22. CHESS-PLAYING IN A BUDDHIST MONASTERY... 266 23. LALUNG VILLAGE, INTERIOR OF FORMOSA... 335 24. UPPER BRIDGE, FOOCHOW..... ~ 356 25. THE KING OF THE BEGGARS. 359 26. AN UNFORTUNATE THIEF.-PUNISHMENT OF THE CANGUE 364 27. FOOCHOW LEPERS.... 365 28. Two OF THE GUARDIANS OF BUDDHA, KUSHAN MONASTERY 375 29. THE KUSHAN HERMIT...... 377 30o.THE ISLAND TEMPLE, RIVER MIN... 379 31. A TRAVELLING BLACKSMITH AT A FARMHOUSE -,. 385 LIST OF I1LLUSTRATIONS. xv PAGE 32. CHINESE PLOUGH, FUKIEN PROVINCE. 387 33. THE SHANGHAI WHEELBARROW.... 408 34. OUR NATIVE BOAT......... 434 35. SZECHUAN BOAT, UPPER YANGTSZE.... 448 36. THE GREAT RAPID, METAN GORGE.. 452 37. NATIVES OF SZECHUAN..457 38. TAKU FORTS... 476 39. COREAN..... 504 40. CHINESE HORSE-SHOEING, PEKING.. 505 4I. PEKING OBSERVATORY. JESUIT INSTRUMENTS. 516 42. ANCIENT CHINESE ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENT 518 43. TARTAR LADIES.. 523 MAPS. I. SKETCH-MAP, SHOWING AUTHOR'S ROUTE. To face fi. 2. SECTION OF A MAP TAKEN FROM LIN'S GEOGRAPHY,' OR'HAE-KW6 TOO-CHE'.. 31 3. FIG. I. PLAN OF INNER TEMPLE OF NAKHOW, FROM A SURVEY BY THE AUTHOR. FIG, 2. PLAN OF AREA ENCLOSED BY OUTER WALLT,, NAKHOW WAT.... 137 4. SOUTH-WESTERN FORMOSA...,, 344 2 A 4 SlA~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ffN:iF.-::,vo~~~mvc-~,,,o o,. ~ ~ ~~~~~~~. t',1', 0'1Y j~~~~~~ NOIO NOR 7.,4 *-.... 7... 0.....p~blP~ T SI A NC H~l A I YIkAO s/i/,f 4Z'11TS/~~ n,, I - NC/IN 4 ORDOS So~~i-;;-iS BA /,,N I~LT 1100401C0L' E:-~ V C VSNIA N _-...... #d110 NO J~c-Yur:11":i.~ 0 -.lP~i u~ "'~*' N"N~- "=L~~ -- ri'K ~ (:fl-f\'-.__- -i....... STCH-P S HOWINGV' ETHOR' R OUE 4 /11711/~~~~~~~~~~~~~I~c.1Vc I ASL2 Y *IC-LAI/11 - _~ L?% i R16n N~~~~~~p-I~' ILL CaU L~ Ia SKETC MAP SHWNG THE,,.5~i1~ AUTHRS RIJ SAICONi ~E L ~ ~,~v ~_~ ~~B~P )T~VU~~C~F ~ ~~~~biB N~~~'i~I A to F ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~F[/oI~? In~1 %~ ~~~~~~~~~~P a~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i;~~~~~~~~~~~~~~5~ SKETCH-MAP SHOWING THE AUTHOR'S ROUTE,~Jl~p, ITHE STRAITS OF MALACCA. INDO-CHINA AND CHINA. CHAPTER I. The Straits of Malacca-The Dutch Operations at Acheen, in SumatraPenang; its Hills, Foliage, Flowers, and Fruit-The Klings, Malays, and Chinese of Penang - Occupations of the Chinese - The Chinaman abroad-A Descendant of the early Portuguese-Hospitality-A Snake at a Ball. IN I862 the Suez Canal was yet unfinished, and estimated by many a more than doubtful undertaking. The joining of the two seas by a navigable channel, cut through a vast desert of shifting sand, people set down as the fond scheme of a visionary enthusiast; and so when I first quitted England I had to leave M. de Lesseps still carving out his fame in the sands of Egypt, and to follow the old route overland. But I need not pause to detail my experiences over one of the beaten tracks of modern tourists; nor can I even venture to describe Galle, with its hills and palms, and its cinnamon groves, as this part of Ceylon is on the highway to India, and therefore already well known. Had health permitted me, on first returning to England in 1865, it was my intention to have penetrated to the centre of the island, in order to explore its ancient Hindoo or Buddhist stone buildings, and to compare them with the magnifi 2 INDO-CHINA AND CHINA. cent remains of the cities, temples, and palaces I had just visited in the heart of Cambodia. This project I was unable to carry out, so that my experiences in Ceylon are confined to the narrow limits of Galle harbour and to the adjacent hills-such indeed as fall to the lot of all who travel by the steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental line. I must therefore invite my reader to accompany me still further eastward, to the Malayan Islands and the mainland of Indo-China, where I spent some years of my life, before I can hope to introduce him to people or places with which he may be still unfamiliar. A voyage to a distant land, even under the most favourable circumstances, has always seemed to me long and tedious. Weary of watching the expanse of placid sea, and the fun and flirtation carried on beneath the white awning of one of the finest steamers afloat, the words'Land on the starboard bow!' fell gratefully on the ears of the outward-bound passengers. Novels were thrown down, and games of cards, chess, and quoits abandoned; while a dozen telescopes and fieldglasses scanned a faint and disappointing line on the southern horizon; that is Acheen Head, and (it may be only in fancy) the breeze off the land comes laden waith a tropic perfume from the rich Sumatran coast. Acheen is the point where the Dutch, with their ponderous and sluggish movements, have struck a new bllow at the power of the Malays. They have left the wound open andt lacerated, but will no doubt return to lop off a fresh slice of territory at a more convenient season. That Dutch rule in Java has been productive of mutual benefit to the island and to Holland —more especially to the latter-no one will be inclined to dispute; TSHE STRAIITS OF MALACCA. 3 nor need we doubt that the same desirable result will follow the occupation of the recently subdued provinces which are being added, slowly but surely, to the Dutch dominions in the Malayan islands. At the same time, unless our treaty rights in these regions are carefully guarded, our peaceful and profitable trading relations with those islands may suffer, as they have done, more than once, during the earlier period of our intercourse with the native states in this quarter of the globe. One would imagine too, that Acheen was a most important point to fall into the hands of a foreign power, standing as it does at the north-western extremity of Sumatra, and forming, so to speak, one of the pillars of the western gate of the Straits of Malacca. I therefore doubt whether any power, more formidable and less friendly than the Dutch, would have been permitted or encouraged to annex this territory. Steaming eastward through the Straits, we are soon within view of Penang: a very small, but at the same time, important and productive island, and the first British possession we reach in the Straits. A strikingly picturesque place is Penang, with its belt of bright yellow sand and its crown of luxuriant tropical vegetation; forming, too, a sort of sanitorium for our settlements in this quarter, and having a rich alluvial plain which, not many years ago, was an impenetrable jungle, but now is a perfect garden of cultivation. The shaded paths on the wooded hills, which rise over 2,000 feet above the sea, lead to the most charming retreats in the world; to bungalows nestling among rocks and foliage, and to cascades where clear cool water falls into natural basins of granite beneath. There residents may bathe beneath 4 IND O- CHINA AND CHINA. canopies of palms and tree-ferns; while, so balmy is the climate amid these hill-dwellings, that the lightest costumes may be at all times worn. Many of the lower spurs of the Penang hills, and the valleys which divide them, have been cleared, and planted with cocoa, areca palms, nutmegs, and a great variety of fruit-trees; small patches of the siri vine and sugar-cane are also to be found. In such places there is a deeper and richer soil than on the plains below, while on the summit of the highest hill the temperature is low enough to allow the cultivation of European vegetables and flowers. On ascending the hill to the government bungalow, nothing amid the profusion and variety of palms, flowering shrubs, or tangled jungle, so much impressed me as the stately beauty of the tree-ferns, growing to perfection about i,6oo feet above the plain. This tree-fern rears its bare, finely-marked stem from 15 to 20 feet high above the underwood, and then curling its delicate fronds upward, outward, and in graceful arches, spreads a leafy canopy of the most tender green foliage, which it drops in a multitude of quivering points at a distance of eight or ten feet round the parent stalk. It will hardly be credited, by those who have never visited a hill country in the tropics, that soon after sunrise the noise of awakening beetles and tree-loving insects is so great as to drown the bellowing of a bull, or the roar of a tiger a few paces off. The sound resembles most nearly the metallic whirr of a hundred Bradford looms. One beetle in particular, known to the natives as the'trumpeter,' busies himself all day long in producing a booming noise with his wings. I have cautiously approached a tree on which I knew a PE VA NG. 5 number of these trumpeter-beetles to have settled, when suddenly the sound stopped, the alarm was spread from tree to tree, and there was a lull in the forest music, which only recommenced when I had returned to the beaten track. One of the most curious insects to be found on the hills so closely resembles the small branch of a shrub, that once, when following a narrow path, I picked up what I thought was a dried twig, but which wriggled and twisted in my hands, and when dropped at last, disappeared in the underwood with wonderful celerity, and a curious jerking motion. Its legs shot out from the stem just like smaller branches, but I searched in vain for this animated plant, which possibly was within eyeshot all the while. I have also seen the leaf insect on the Penang hills, which in its mimicry so imitates the leaf of a plant as to most effectually protect it from harm. The twig and the leaf insect belong to the order Or/hopytera. The former resembled, most of its kind, the Bacteria Sarnenlzosa, although it seemed to me to be longer, more slender, and of a darker colour. Dried twig insects are species of Plasma, and the leaf insect is, I believe, the Phylhzum sicczfolium. Butterflies and moths in every variety and hue are also to be found in abundance, fluttering among the trees and flowering shrubs in the sunshine, where the forest opens. They vary in dimensions from a fraction of an inch to Io inches or I 2 inches across the wings, which is the size attained by the Atlas moth,' Saturnia Atlas.' Flowers and flowering shrubs or trees are by no means abundant, nor are their hues so attractive, in any part of the island, as to come up to one's preconceived ideas respecting the wild luxuriance of tropical colouring in 6 IND O-CHINA AND CHINA. which scene-painters revel when depicting an Eastern forest or jungle. It is in the gardens of the foreign residents, on the hot plain, that we meet with the greatest variety of indigenous flowers, glowing, most of them, with the brilliant primary colours which seem to me to characterise the flora of tropic regions. I should single out red and yellow as predominating, while all those secondary or mixed colours (excepting green) which exhibit so many tender touches of nature in our home gardens, are conspicuous by their absence from these sunny climes. Perhaps our men of science might be able to assign a cause for this, and to tell us whether the heat of the oriental sun develops in flowering plants a craving for the absorption of certain colours of the solar spectrum, and for the reflection of others; whether, indeed, the elective affinities of plants in this way are affected by temperature. Can we, in the same way, account for the brilliant plumage of tropical birds, in which homogeneous red, yellow, and blue, are very conspicuous, and also for the liking which uncultured eastern races show for the reds, blues, and yellows. Even in China we find red a token of rejoicing (the bridal costume), while over India and China, and all Buddhist countries, the sacred priestly robes are yellow; and with a number of the races of India and IndoChina the yellow golden skin is esteemed the highest attribute of female beauty. In China, again, blue betokens slight mourning, and white or the absence of colour the deepest sorrow. Be thlat as it may, I believe that the flowers of our European gardens and woods, can boast a greater variety and delicacy of colouring than those to be found in any tropical lands THE FOIIAGE OF PENANG. 7 I ever visited. The hues are not only much more varied, but in temperate latitudes Dame Nature seems to exhaust her resources in producing an infinite diversity of tints, blended together with such marvellous delicacy and beauty, as to appeal to the tenderest feelings of the most cultured races of mankind. The foliage of the island of Penang, like that of the majority of the islands of the Malayan Archipelago, is dense and luxuriant, and remarkable more for its variety of form than for its different shades of green. The growth of grasses and jungle in this region is so rapid as to entail the constant labour of the husbandman to prevent their overrunning his oldest clearings. I have seen a sugar-field on Province Wellesley, which had been abandoned for little over twelve months, completely overspread with jungle; and were Penang forsaken by the British to-morrow, or rather by its Chinese cultivators, it would relapse in an incredibly short space of time, into the impenetrable jungle island which Captain Light found when he landed there in I786. An amusing story is still told of the plan hit upon by Captain Light, to get this jungle growth in part cleared away. He loaded his guns, so the tale goes, with silver coins, and fired them into the thick bush, that the Malays might be tempted to make clearings in their search after the dollars.' The rapidity with which plants will grow in Penang is truly surprising. I have myself watched young stems of the bamboo shoot up over a quarter of an inch in a single night, so that their growth is all but visible to the naked eye. The trailing vines and jungle Our Tropical Possessiolzs iun Malayan India. Cameron. S INDO-CHINA AND CHINA. foliage hang over the rocks in long festoons, and creep along the yellow beach to crown old Neptune with a thousand evergreen wreaths. Many of these plants will thrive without a grain of soil. Orchids, of course, feed on air, but I have seen forest trees rooted on a bare rock, and flourishing there as vigorously as if planted in some rich alluvial earth. Many of the woods found on the Penang hills are exceedingly hard and durable; their specific gravity is great, as they will readily sink in water. Woods of this sort are used by the Malays and Chinese in making anchors for their praus and junks, while, the bamboo and ratan furnish material for ropes, or not unfrequently ready-made cordage. There are about a hundred different sorts of fruit grown in Penang, but the Durian and Mangosteen are by far the most famous among, them and may indeed be considered the two most delicious fruits of Malayan India. The pine-apple, custard-apple, mango and pomegranate, and some of the other varieties, are also too well known to require description here. Of the Pisang or plantain-probably the most useful and widely distributed of all tropical fruits-there are over thirty kinds, of which, the Pisang-mnas, or golden plantain, so named from its colour, though one of the smallest, is nevertheless most deservedly prized. During the ten months I spent in Penang and Province WTellesley, I was chiefly engaged in photography —a congenial, profitable, and instructive occupation, enabling me to gratify my taste for travel and to fill my portfolio, as I wandered over Penang settlement and the mainland hard by, with an attractive series PHOTOGRA PH Y 9 of characteristic scenes and types, which were in constant demand among the resident European population. I trained two Madras men, or boys as they were called here, to act as my printers and assistants, the Chinese having, at that time, refused to lend themselves to such MALAYS SEI,LING DURIANS. devilry as taking likenesses of objects without the touch of human hands. Moreover they, as'Orang puti' or'White men,' shrunk from having their fingers and much-prized long nails stained black, like those of the blackest of'Orang etam' or black men. My I0o IANDO-CCHINVA AND CHINA. Klings, on the other hand, were of the colour of a wellsunned nitrate of silver stain all over; and had they, who even pride themselves on their fairness of skin, objected to the discoloration of their fingers, I should have had no difficulty in obtaining negroes of an ivory black in this small island, as a wonderful mixture of races is to be found, and'phases of faith' as multiform as the nationalities are diverse. Besides the English residents, who comprise the government officials, professional men, and merchants, there are descendants of the early Portuguese voyagers, Chinese, Malays, Parsees, Arabs, Armenians, Klings, Bengalees, and negroes from Africa. Besides these, the European merchants comprise men of different nationalities. On landing from the steamer it is difficult to discover that one is actually on a Malayan island. We meet one or two Malays squatted beneath the trees selling sugar-cane or'Penang lawyers' (a polished cane with a large heavy, egg-shaped root), but there are also a host of Klings in charge of boats and gharries (cabs). Dark, sharp and active are these Klings, without a trace of calf on their straight limbs, and yet able to run for a whole day alongside their diminutive ponies without showing a token of fatigue. These men oil themselves all over till they look like varnished bronze, and this oiling may account for their suppleness. All of them speak Malay, and some know a little English. I remember one, who, in his eagerness for a hire offered to drive me to the devil for a dollar. From his appearance I declined the offer, almost fancying myself in the presence of his sable majesty, or his washerman, already. At Georgetown, on the north-west, opposite the YIE NA TI VESo r mainland, there is a Kling bazaar where all sorts of foreign commodities are sold, and at prices which rarely exceed the sums they can be bought for, in the countries where they are manufactured. There are also a number of grog-shops and lodging-houses. The town contains, besides, a large Chinese population, made up of merchants, shopkeepers, and handicraftsmen, immigrants MATLAY BOY. from the island of Hainan, Kwangtung, and from the several districts of the Fukien province. These men are the most successful traders and patient toilers in the East. We could not do without them in our Malayan possessions, and yet they are difficult members of society to manage. To convey some idea of their usefulness, I need only say, that they can make anything required by sevra diticsofte Fkie poince Thes mn ta r 12 rINAD O- CHIIVA AND C~HINAA. a European; and in trade they are indispensable to us, as they have established connections in almost all the islands to which our foreign commodities are carried. Their agents reside in Sumatra, Borneo, and on the Indo-Chinese mainland, collecting produce by barter with the natives, to whom they are not unfrequently related by social, as well as by commercial ties. In this way much of the produce shipped from Penang to England and other foreign countries, passes through the hands of Chinese middle-men. Then again, the European merchant at almost all the Eastern ports finds it indispensable to have in his employment a Chinese comprador, or treasurer, who not only pays for produce, and receives and collects moneys on behalf of the firm, but is also responsible for the weight and purity of the silver in which payments have been made. Under him he has assistants called schroffs, trained to detect spurious coin, and who display in this matter a keenness of perception which is puzzling to a European; for the schroff sees readily at a single glance, and picks out from among the heap of dollars, some doubtful coin which he himself, however expert, would have failed to discover. But as we shall see hereafter, some of these schroffs have received their education at the hands of the counterfeit coiners and doctors of dollars in China. The comprador hires the labourers who load and discharge ships, and also with the aid of his staff frequently acts as broker in buying and selling for the firm. He is also useful in discovering the standing of Chinese firms, and in procuring for his employer office and domestic servants, for whose good conduct he will hold himself personally responsible. HIe has seldom any trouble on CHIINESE IMMIGRANTS. I3 this score, as the men he has about him and employs are of his own clan, and are most loyal to their chief. I have no doubt, however, that this loyalty is as often due to the dread influence of the congsees, or secret societies to which comprador and men belong, as to the strong ties of kindred which are also esteemed by the Chinese. It will be conceded, then, that the comprador must be a man endowed with an undoubted capacity for business. He is indeed, in his way, the model trader of the East, and to such men as he, we owe much of our commercial success in these islands. He is, as a rule, thoroughly to be relied upon. He lives temperately, and at all times has his trading wits about him. Yet he never appears other than a leisureloving, fat, prosperous personage, who, as Mr. Wallace truly remarks,'grows richer and fatter every year. A walk through the streets of George Town will disclose still further the important position which Chinese labour occupies in Penang. There we find carpenters, blacksmiths, tailors, and indeed artisans of every kind, busily plying their handicrafts in open shops, or beneath the shade of wayside trees. All over the island, too, Chinese are scattered as planters, squatters, and tillers of the soil; some of them, who have long been settled in the place, and who have wedded native wives, dwell in large and elegant houses environed with fruit and flower-gardens, while their humble toiling brethren live in rude huts, built of bamboo and palm leaves, in the centre of their small vegetable gardens or pepper plantations; and to outward appearance the latter are the most patient, industrious. 3 4 ID 0O-CHIiNA AND CtHINA. and contented cultivators to be met with on the surface of the earth. But they are not without ambition, as we shall see by-and-by. The Chinaman out of his own country, enjoying the security and prosperity which a more liberal administration confers, seems to develop into something like a new being. No longer chained to the soil by the iron fetters of a despotic government, CHINESE COOLIE. he finds wide scope for his energies, and high rewards for his industry. But the love of combinations, of the guilds and unions in which all Chinamen delight, tempts them too far. They first combine among themselves to get as much out of each other as they possibly can, and when practicable to monopolise trade and rule the markets; and then, feeling the strength of their CHINESE CLANS AND G UIZDS. 15 own organisation, the societies set up laws for the rule and protection of their members, and in defiance of the local government. The congsee, or guild, thus drifts from a purely commercial into a semi-mercantile semipolitical league, and more than once has menaced the power of petty states, by making efforts to throw off the yoke which rested so lightly on its shoulders. The disturbances at Perak are the latest development of this tendency, and we have had many previous instances of the same insubordination in Penang, and elsewhere. Nor are these the only dangers: the feuds of the immigrants are imported with them, and break out again as soon as they have set foot on foreign soil. Thus, in Penang not long ago there were two Chinese societies, known as, if I remember aright, the Hilum and Hokien congsees, that is the Hainan and Fukien societies. The members of the one were all men from the island of Hainan in Kwangtung, and the others men from the Fukien province. The two provinces are said, at an early period in Chinese history, to have formed independent states, and the dialects spoken are still so widely different, that natives of Kwangtung are looked upon by the lower orders in the Fukien country as foreigners. I was present on one occasion in Penang at a village which, on the previous night, had been sacked and burned by the members of an opposing clan, and it required strong measures on the part of the government to put down these faction fights. This is the sort of village warfare which, as we shall see when we reach the'Flowery Land,' the imperial government in the south of China has at times been either unable or unwilling to suppress. In the 16 IND 0- C-HINA A4 ND CHINA. neighbourhood of Swatow, for example, the villagc clans were brought into subjection to the authorities only about three years ago, by a process of wholesale slaughter, recalling the summary dealings in I1663 (Javanese era), when the Chinese attempted to overthrow the power of the Dutch government in Java. A Javanese native historian says of the Chinese:''Their hearts swell as they grow richer, and quarrels ensue.' It has therefore always been a difficult matter in these islands to deal with the Chinese immigrants. Sir Stamford Raffles found it so during the period of his enlightened administration; and the recent disturbances, which I propose to notice in another chapter, only confirm his remark that' The ascendancy of the Chinese requires to be cautiously guarded against and restrained.' 2 This is a question which, of late years, has been forcing itself upon the attention of the United States government. They must either restrain the tide of Chinese emigration which has set in upon their shores, or amend their constitutional laws, and adopt some less liberal, though perhaps more enlightened form of special administration, enabling them to deal satisfactorily with a people who bring to their doors habits of toiling industry, the cheapest and most efficient labour, but import at the same time turbulent' tempers, an objectionable religion, and some of the grossest vices that can stain the human race. In Penang, where there are few, or almost no competitors in the various occupations in which the Chinese engage, and where their vices break out in a milder form, the difficulty presses more lightly. There the Chinese, when pro-' Raffles' Hislory of azva, ii. 233. ibid. i. 253. CHINESE LABOU R. Ili perly restrained, are the most useful and most indispensable members of society. True, they smoke opium, they lie without restraint, and whenever opportunity offers are dishonest, cunning, and treacherous; but for all that, those of them who have risen to positions of trust forsake their vices altogether, or —what is more probable-conceal them with Chinese artfulness. Should you, my reader, ever settle in Penang, you will there be introduced to a Chinese contractor, who will sign a document to do anything. His costume will tell you that he is a man of inexpensive, yet cleanly habits. He will build you a house after any design you choose, and within so many days, subject to a fine should he exceed the stipulated time. He will furnish you with a minute specification, in which everything, to the last nail, will be included. He has a brother who will contract to make every article of furniture you require, either from drawings or from models. He has another brother who will fit you and your good lady with all sorts of clothing, and yet a third relative who will find servants, and contract to supply you with all the native and European delicacies in the market, upon condition that his monthly bills are regularly honoured. It is indeed to Chinamen that the foreign resident is indebted for almost all his comforts, and for the profusion of luxuries which surround his wonderfully European-looking home on this distant island. At the fiat of his master, Ahong, the Chinese butler, daily spreads the table with substantial fare, with choice fruits and pleasant flowers-the attributes of that lavish hospitality which is the pride of our merchants in that quarter of the globe. I8 I1VDO-CINVA AND CHINA. There is a large Malay population on the island, greater than the Chinese. It is, however, a much more difficult task to point out how they are all occupied, as they do not practise any trades or professions, and there are no merchants among them. Some are employed on plantations catching beetles, pruning the trees, and tilling the soil; but, on the whole, the Malays do as little work as possible; some own small., J? a A CHINESE CONTRACTOR. gardens, and rear fruit; others are sailors, and have sea-going prahus, in which Chinese trade. But I do not recollect ever seeing a single genuine Malay merchant. There are Malay campongs (villages) scattered over the island, made up of a few rude bamboo huts, and two or three clusters of fruit-trees. But many of these settlements are by the sea shore, and there they dwell, fishing a little, sleeping a great deal, but always, A N EW TYPE OF MAN. I9 awake or asleep, as I believe, chewing a mixture of betel-nut, lime, and siri, which distends the mouth, reddens the lips, and encases the teeth with a crust of solid black. There are still another class of inhabitants who are the direct or mixed descendants of Europeans. Some:.'> A NEW TYPE OF MAN. of these, though claiming European descent, are darker, and I should say in every way inferior to the natives themselves. Not many days after setting foot in the island I was accosted by a pigmy specimen of the human race, who declared himself to be of Portuguese 20 INDO- CHINA AND] CHINA. extraction. His features were remarkable for the absence of any bad expression, and there were at the same time no good traits lurking anywhere in his dark physiognomy. His dress presented a strange but characteristic compromise between that of the European, the Chinese, and the Malay; his head was surmounted by a chimney-pot beaver hat, only prevented from acting as an extinguisher by a wedge formed of red cotton cloth. As I was a stranger, he politely offered to introduce me to his circle of acquaintances, who, he said, were all Europeans like himself. I felt puzzled to determine what constituted him a European, and was forced to the conclusion that it was the beaver hat. Naturalists tell us that long residence in a certain region is apt to transform the physical appearance ot an animal or insect, but when found it is at once recognised by certain attributes of its family; and so it seemed to me in this case; the transforming influence of long residence had left not a semblance of the original Portuguese parent save the uncompromisingly respectable hat. The only other relic of the civilising influence of the early Portuguese voyagers I discovered in the name' Da Costa,' which turned out to be that borne by my little friend. Da Costa has been de scribed as a type of men constantly to be met with in the islands, and at points on the Indo-Chinese and Chinese mainland-the result of a complicated mixture of Asiatic and European blood. On the other hand, at all these places there exists a large and highly respectable community, the educated descendants of Europeans. Among them are government servants, merchants, and professional men, justly proud of the position they occupy; and whose wives A SlNA.KE AT 2A BA LL. 21 and daughters are, many of them, ornaments to society, and boast a beauty which would be prized in any part of the world. This beauty, however, is swift to decay; like garden flowers which shoot up into early maturity, and throw all their vitality into one brilliant effort of glorious colouring, suddenly it bursts forth and suddenly it languishes and passes away. The men are frequently of very sallow complexion. I have a lively recollection of one who made an unfair impression on me. He had been educated in Calcutta. I was green at the time. This self-introduced gentleman extended his'hospitality so far as to invite me to a dinner at the baths, which lie at the foot of the Penang hills. One or two of his friends, of equall1 sallow and pasty skins, and appalling gastronomic powers, were included in the convivial party. The entertainment on the whole was enjoyable, and to me new; but the reader may judge of my surprise when, two or three days subsequently, I received a bill for the entire feast. The introduction of a snake fifteen feet long into a room full of dancers was perhaps the most extraordinary experience I ever had on any festive gathering. The event happened at a ball given by Mr. C., a gentleman who had been educated in Scotland, and fell out in this wise. My friend lived on a small plantation, and had for some time past been troubled by the nocturnal raids of this snake, which had swallowed a pig, and was gradually clearing his fowl-house. A number of natives had been on the watch, and had just captured the reptile, coiled up in a comatose state among the shrubs. The Malays, rarely excited, unless when fighting, or'running Amok,' and knowing there was no 22 INDTO.-CHINA AND CHINA. danger, as the snake was overcome by the process of digesting a savoury meal, determined, in a fit of frantic joy, to lay the trophy at their master's feet. They had it by the tail, and dragging it to the sound of quadrille music thump, thump, up the wide staircase, rushed into the drawing-room and laid the monster down. Motionless it gazed around upon the strange scene, and probably speculated on the prospect of still more sumptuous fare, could it only command its wonted energy and crush its entertainers in its slimy coil. Some of the gentlemen retired with strange celerity; others displayed their gallantry and daring behind a barricade of chairs; while a few stood their ground, supporting their terror-stricken partners, as the unwelcome intruder was hauled off to expiate his crime in the court below. CHAPTER II. A Visit to Ouedah-Miden missing-The Rajah's Garden-Province XWellesley-Sugar and Tapioca Planting-Field Labour-A baffled Tiger-Wild Men-An Adventure in Province Wellesley. AN officer in Penang being about to visit the Rajah of Quedah, and to hand over to that sovereign's tender care a number of objectionable fugitives, who, quitting his dominions, had taken shelter beneath the British flag, and sought a precarious livelihood by murder and pillage, invited me to accompany his mission in a small government steamer. It was but a short run across the Straits, and about sixty miles to the north of Penang along the coast; and on the way we touched at' Pulo Tulure,' or Egg Island, one of a group of islets, and the one which the turtles have chosen, in preference to all the others, as a repository for their eggs. On Pulo Tulure is a single hut, and close to the sea beach dwell two Malays, set there to look after the turtles and to collect in sackloads the eggs which they deposit at certain seasons of the year. A single deal table and a few sacks appeared to make up the entire furniture of the hut; and the Malays solemnly declared, as faithful children of Islam, that there was no stopping the turtles when they did commence to lay. That they first covered the beach, which shone like a pearl with their eggs, and that then the two inmates of the hut 24 I.VD 0- CHIATA AND CHINA. had to squat on the table, in order that the turtles might lay the residue of their offerings beneath its square wooden legs; the whole process being carried through, so they represented, in a quiet business-like manner by these strange creatures of the deep. They even went so far as to say that a sort of mutual acquaintance had sprung up, and that the turtles would strike to a turtle, and refuse to deposit a single egg, if any stranger were to settle upon the island, in hope of robbing their faithful Rajah of this deep-sea tribute.' Banyak pandie, orang Malaiu' (cunning Malays!) said my Kling servant. They sold us a sackload of the eggs, which are esteemed a great delicacy by the natives. They are globose in form, equal in bulk to a large duck's-egg, and are covered by a tough opalescent whitish-blue skin. It seems strange that the turtle should always show so marked a preference for this island. Although the eggs are removed in great quantities, they never desert it for another. The occupation of collecting turtle-eggs is one preeminently suited to the Malay, for in them they have genuine marketable articles deposited at their feet, without any trouble at all, free of charge. Rice requires labour for its cultivation, it is a lon'g time in growing, and after that it still has to be reaped; even the cocoanut palm, which supplies food and fuel, takes years to rear its stately head and drop its treasures into its owner's lap. But the turtle (and no one need wonder) is held in veneration by the leisure-loving Asiatic, as it brings food to his table ready-made. At the time of our visit to Pulo Tulure we saw a number of turtles swimming about. The sea was of a A VILLA GE GAMBLING-HO USE. 25 pure pale green hue, so clear and so placid that we could discern the marine plants and variously-tinted corals, on the rocks some fathoms below-a scene only rivalled in brilliancy by the vivid colours of a tropical flower-garden. A Malay boy caught a huge turtle for us. The capture was simply and deftly effected. He quietly slipped into the water, and swam round until fairly behind his unsuspecting prize. Then seizing it by the shell he turned it over on its back, and in this position floated it quite powerless on to the beach. One morning at Quedah my boy Miden disappeared. He had gone ashore early, and for some hours I anxiously awaited his return, but all in vain; until at last, my patience being fairly exhausted, I landed with my friend, and after long search discovered the absentee in a village gambling-house, engaged in a violent altercation. I dragged him at once out of the den, but not without encountering considerable opposition, for the place was filled with Malays, and they, excited by their gains or losses, clutched their krises (daggers) and made ready to resist this sudden interference. However a quiet explanation, backed by the appearance of my friend, and a party of men from the iboat, restored order. I then found that Miden, with a few touches of fancy, not altogether foreign to the Indian mind, had been passing himself off as a man of considerable importance, in fact as a Hindoo of very high caste. The Malays, who are usually gentlemen in points of honour, at once conceded that, under the circumstances, I had a perfect right to intervene; and harmony being thus secured, they displayed sundry tokens of their good-will by 26 IND O- CHINA AVND CHILAo entering freely into conversation, and exhibiting their krises for my inspection. These krises many of them have beautifully carved handles,'while the blades, formed of iron and steel welded together, spring from the hafts in waved edges, and terminate in poisoned points. My readers doubtless know that'Amok running' is not uncommon among the Malay tribes, but I am thankful to say that I never actually witnessed this bloodthirsty revenge, which a single frantic Malay will sometimes wreak on society. I can conceive of nothing in human shape more formidable, nothing more fiend-like, than a Malay, trained to the fatal use of the kris, in his last outbreak of passion, dealing ott indiscriminate slaughter. Yet the Malay, in his normal condition, is the most social, placid, and tender-hearted of Asiatics. The Rajah of Quedah is a young man, a fine specimen of his race; his looks are full of intelligence; and indeed, since the date of my visit, he has proved himself to be a wise and careful ruler, and has earned the good opinion both of his own subjects and his foreign allies. Thus it was only the other day, when the Laroot troubles threatened to spread, that he adopted the most prompt and successful measures for the suppression of piracy, at any rate, in the dominions under his own control. The palace where he resides is a brick edifice of modest proportions; and there is an excellent road, some miles in extent, which leads from the Rajah's quarters to his pleasure-gardens. These gardens, though covering a small area, boasted a variety of products and elegance of horticultural design, unsurpassed by any which I have seen in the East. 7HE WRAA yHf OF QUEDAH. 27 In one orange-grove the trees were so laden with fruit that the boughs would have broken unless supported by strong bamboo stakes, and the balmy air was steeped in the aroma of the oranges and sweet perfume of the lotus in full bloom. The Rajah had tried in vain to cultivate the grape-vine. His vines grew, but the grapes never reached maturity. We were driven to this beautiful retreat in a handsome carriage of European make. When steaming down the Quedah river we noticed a score of young alligators swimming in line upstream, and we also had the good fortune of a passing shot at as many more full-grown monsters, as they lay out in the sun on a long spit of sand. Muddy in colour, they, with their long jagged spines, were only to be distinguished from the withered leaves of the cocoapalm, imbedded in the bank, by a very close inspection. Province Wellesley lies opposite to Penang, on the mainland of the Malayan peninsula. It is about thirty miles long, and from five to eleven miles in breadth. This district is, at present, the most productive in the Straits, exporting annually a very large quantity of sugar, tapioca, and rice. It adjoins Quedah, and was formerly included in the Rajah's dominions, and was purchased by the British government in I8oo. It contains a large Malayan population, but most of the hard work is done by Chinese labourers, or by Klings from the coast of Coromandel. The Chinese planters were the first who reared the cane, and refined the sugar in quantities sufficient to make it a leading article of export; but European science has long superseded the rude refining pro 28 IND O- CHIIVA A VND CHIANA. cesses of the less expert Chinese, and European capital has been invested to such an enormous extent in establishing plantations, as practically. to shut out all but the most skilful and wealthy competitors. The sugar plantations of the Europeans are spread over a wide area; indeed, they cover the major portion of the cultivated lands of the province. Each plantation occupies some square miles of tilled land, and in some part of the estate there is usually a steam crushing-mill, and a refinery, where an efficient staff of European engineers are kept constantly employed. Canes of many different varieties have been imported into the Province, but (those from the Mauritius excepted) none are found to thrive so well, or yield so high a percentage of juice, as the reputed indigenous species. Of these there are reported to be six different kinds, and one or two of them I have found growing wild in the jungle. The sugar-cane takes many months to mature after it has been planted; but the crops, whenever possible, are so timed as to come in in rotation, so that the mills may be kept constantly at work. A quantity of cane is also raised by the Malays and Chinese, and this the growers sell at the mills for a stipulated price per acre. When I was in Province Wellesley, many of the planters and engineers were big brawny men from the lowlands of Scotland. I spent altogether six weeks in their company, and I still look back with pleasure to a visit which introduced me to a constant variety of adventure and sport, and to so much of the warm hospitality for which my countrymen have always been famed. SUGAR AND TAPIOCA. 29 In addition to sugar-growing, the planters have brought many of the less fertile tracts of land under cultivation for tapioca-a hardy plant capable of growing in almost any soil, and requiring less trenching and manuring than sugar. In some places they alternate the crops, or rather plant tapioca after sugar, and then allow the land to lie fallow for a time. The plant throws up a few long woody stems and large bright-green leaves, but it is from the root that the tapioca is obtained. This root resembles most the Indian yam, or a huge potato, and in outward appearance is as unlike the snow-white delicate food it produces as coal to the flame it feeds, or tar to the brilliant dyes it. yields. The roots are dug up when ripe, and conveyed to the washing-house to be brushed and rinsed in water by machinery. This process completed, they are passed by an ingenious contrivance into a grating machine, which reduces them to a brown watery pulp, and this pulp is then removed by ducts into troughs, where the fibrous matter and skin are separated from the flour, and the tapioca is next passed into tanks of water. Workmen go bodily into these tanks, stirring up the solution with their limbs. At the end of this operation the flour is allowed to precipitate to the bottom of the tank; the water is then drained off, and the cakes of tapioca, after sundry washings, precipitations, and cleansings, are dried in iron pans, much in the same way as tea, and finally prepared for market. The planters in Province Wellesley lead rough and arduous lives. They have many troubles to contend against, not merely in managing their estates, but in 4 30 INDO-CHINzA AND CHINA. dealing with the labour which they are forced to import. They pass through periods of great anxiety, too, when the crops are approaching maturity, and when a sudden downfall of rain might cause the canes to burst into flower-a sight most lovely to the beholder, but deeply deplored by the proprietor of the estate, for it blights his prospect of an abundant harvest. But after all, care sits lightly on the bronzed faces and broad shoulders of these sugar planters; and they, one and all, find a real enjoyment in the vicissitudes of their adventurous lot. The most agreeable months in the year to them, and indeed to their guests as well, are probably those when the young canes are showing their vivid green blades above the high-banked furrows of the fields, when early morning reveals the heavy night-dews sparkling on every leaf, or glistening like hoar-frost on the webs of the field-spiders, over the low-lying wayside shrub. Then the dawn with rosy fingers lifts the misty veil from off the inland mountain sides, and the air comes laden with a chill and bracing breeze. Armed with a fowling-piece, the planter now sallies forth to his accustomed sport; and so plentiful are the snipe at this season that a fair marksman is certain to secure a dozen brace, at least, before he returns to his breakfast. I have been out of a morning with my friend T., a well-known shot, and I never saw him miss his bird; indeed he never fired unless he could bring down a brace, one bird to each barrel. At times, more formidable game will cross the sportsman's path. Thus, Mr. B., a big powerful fellow, had an unexpected and disagreeable encounter with a wild boar. B. was insufficiently armed. He wounded the brute A WILD BOAR. 3 and it then charged with overpowering fury, and caught its antagonist by the hand. After a terrific struggle B. at last dragged the beast to a deep pool, forced its head under water, and so compelled its drowning jaws to release his own mutilated hand, but not until the boar's tusk had made a huge hole through his palm. Elephants in former days afforded good sport, but they were fast disappearing as their haunts in the jungle and forest made way for gardens and cultivated fields. In the wildest and more northerly portions of this section of the peninsula, elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses, deer, hogs, and other wild animals, may still be found, more especially in places where only small Chinese clearings have been effected, or where Malay hamlets are scattered at wide intervals amid virgin forests or jungle. In these sparse settlements of Malays and Chinese, Roman Catholic missionaries are at work. I once fell in with one of these priests, shod with straw sandals, and walking alone towards'Bukit Mer-tagrim' (the pointed hill), to visit a sick convert who had a clearing upon the mountain side. His path lay through a region infested with wild animals; and when I enquired if he had no dread of tigers, he pointed to his Chinese umbrella, his only weapon, and assured me that with a similar instrument a friend of his had driven off the attack of a tiger, not very far from where we stood. But the nervous shock which followed that triumph had cost the courageous missionary his life. I gathered from my friend that he had lived for years among the natives, stooping himself, as it were, to lift them up, and he had grown old in this obscure but useful toil. I have encountered 32 IND O- CHINA AD CHIVA. many such men in my travels, and though I do not sympathise with the religion which they preach, I have always admired their self-sacrificing devotion. Protestant missionaries one meets with nearly everywhere, many of them of equal zeal with their Roman Catholic fellow-labourers, but their chief spheres of action are situated at the ports and places of European resort, more MALAY HUT. frequently than in the hearts of the countries they have set themselves to convert. As I have already stated, the supplies of labour employed in tilling the fields, and in the various processes connected with the cultivation and manufacture of sugar, are chiefly obtained from the Coromandel coast in the Madras presidency, where agreements are usually drawn up whereby the men engage to KIIVG COOLIES. 33 serve on the estates for a certain term, at a fixed monthly wage. On the expiration of the original term of agreement, the coolies are at liberty either to renew the contract or return to their native province. Many of them choose to remain upon the plantations-a fact which speaks well for the treatment they receive at the hands of their employers. Chinese are also used by the planters, although more sparingly, as the gangs of coolies are imported by Chinese capitalists, and only to be hired through a headman, who contracts to do a certain amount of tillage at a price fixed according to area. The Chinese are stronger, healthier, and better workmen, although they require better food, and do not perhaps stand prolonged exposure to the hot sun so well as the natives of India, and the price of their labour is consequently too high to enable them to compete successfully with the Klings; and moreover, planters are not always in a position to have their work done by the piece, nor are the guild-ridden Chinese so easily dealt with as their darker brothers in the field. There are many Malays in Province Wellesley, but they do not work on the plantations, and indeed it is almost impossible to say how one-twentieth part of the Malay population occupies itself. As Mahometans they practise circumcision, and recite frequent prayers. The rest of their lives they seem to spend in rearing large families to follow their fathers' example, and to wait lazily for such subsistence as the bounty of nature may provide. The male Malay, in his own country, is a sort of gentleman, who keeps aloof from trade, whose pride is in his ever-ready kris, with its finely polished handle, and its pointed poisoned blade. His 34 INDO- CHINA AND CHINA. ancestors, some of them, knew well how to use that kris both on land and sea. There are a few timid woolly-haired races on the mountains inland, who can tell something of Malayan raids, and who still look down with longing eyes on the plains from which their own forefathers were expelled. As to these hill tribes-' Orang Bukit,''Orang Outan,''Orang Anto,' mountain men, men of the wilds, spirit men-such people, the Malays solemnly assure us, carry tails, whose tufted ends they dip in damar oil and ignite, and thereupon rushing all ablaze into the Malayan campongs, spread fire and destruction around. In this fable it is evident that the Malays have got hold of the exploits of the ape god in the Hindoo'Ramayana.' I may take this opportunity of assuring my readers, that the aboriginal tribes referred to, have nothing to show in the shape of a tail; not even the rudiments, so far as I know, to support the theory of progression of species, or of natural and spontaneous development of the human race. I would also ask (even supposing the progenitors of these tribes had tails) why the march of progress should deprive their descendants of such an ornament. If we are to credit the stories which some missionaries penned about two centuries ago, apes in these localities used to find the tail a highly useful appendage.1 Thus, these ingenious apes are reported to have caught crabs by thrusting their tails into the crab-holes, and dragging out their luckless victims clinging all unwittingly to this monkey fishing-tackle. 1 The Oriental Islaznds, by Herman Moll, i. 4I 5. TIE TALE OF THE BAFFLED TIGER. 35 WTild animals, as I remarked, have in a great measure been driven from the province, and were therefore by no means so abundant, as I had been led to expect. One might reside on a plantation for years, and never once be pursued by a tiger, like the fortunate Mr. MacNab. Planters of necessity live far apart, but their custom was to meet about once a week at each other's houses in rotation. This festive gathering was known as'Mutton night,' as a sheep, when they) could get one, was slaughtered for the repast. In former days planters were all bachelors, but the meetings were none the less convivial on that account. Many of them had to travel long distances for their dinner, and on one occasion, when feasting was over, when they had chatted and sung until the night was far spent, a'dock and dorack' of Scotch whiskey was dispensed at parting to keep out the cold, and brace the nerves against the attack of a stray rhinoceros, an'orang-outan,' or a tiger. It was rather dark, and verging on the small hours of morning, when MacNab, mounting on his trusty steed, set his face towards home. Feeling at peace with all men, and even with the beasts of prey, he cantered along a road bordered with mangroves, admiring the fitful gleams of the fireflies that were lighting their midnight lamps among the trees. But soon the road became darker, and Donald, the pony, pricked his ears uneasily as he turned into a jungle-path which led towards a stream. Donald sniffed the air, and soon redoubled his pace; with ears set close back, nostrils dilated, and bristling mane. Onward he sped, and at last the angry growl of a tiger, in full chase. behind, roused MacNab to the full peril of his position, and chilled his blood with the thought 36 I/VDO-C CHINA AND CHIIA. that his pursuer was fast gaining ground, and that at any moment he might feel the clutch of his hungry relentless claws. Here was a dilemma; the cold creek before him, and the hot breath of the tiger in the rear. A moment or two were gained by tossing his hat behind him, then Donald cleared the stream at a bound, the tiger lost his scent, and MacNab reached home in safety, by what he delighted to describe as a miraculous PURSUED BY A TIGER. escape. How frequently a man lives to discover his worst enemies in those who profess themselves his truest friends! MacNab's associates, with wicked incredulity, refused to believe in his tale of the baffled tiger; indeed, they attributed the pony's terror and the frantic headlong rush for home to the presence of a little bit of prickly bamboo which had accidentally got fixed beneath the saddle-girths. During my visit to one of the plantations a tiger TRA VELLI~NG IN PR 0 VIACE PWELIESLE Y. 37 and her cub were lurking in the jungle, not far from the house. They had been committing depredations among the cattle at a neighbouring village, and could be heard at intervals during the night. My only unfortunate adventure in Province Wellesley occurred during a storm, when on my way to the plantation of Mr. Cain, which chanced to be the most remote in the settlement. Mr. Cain's estate lay at the foot of a range of hills, where it was said that a certain wild tribe dwelt, and my boy Talep, as he was anxious to see the'orang-outan,' or men of the woods, was allowed to accompany me on my journey. Having selected a calm morning, we crossed from Penang in a Malay boat, and landed at a native village at the point most convenient for reaching our destination. In the village we hired two waggons, each drawn by a pair of black water-buffaloes, and set out to accomplish the twelve or fifteen miles which still separated us from my friend's plantation. Talep and the baggage were stowed in the leading waggon. I followed in the other, and occupied myself for the first mile or two in admiring the beauty of the forest and jungle along the road. Our route at the outset took us through a mangrove swamp, which extended over an area of land that had, at no distant period, been covered by the sea. The tortuous roots of the mangrove plants rising in a complete net-work, seemed to have caught and retained the deposits of successive tides, till at last was formed the solid ground along which we were then making our way. We soon left the swamp, and took to the main road, here and there passing some Malay hamlet embowered in rich tropical foliage, and shaded 38 lNDO- CfHIN4 ANVD CHINA. with groves of banana and the broad leaves of the cocoa and areca palms. Suddenly the sky became overcast with heavy masses of threatening cloud. The bright glare was transformed into dark twilight. The palms rocked uneasily in the breeze, the forest moaned and whispered of approaching storm, while flocks of water-fowl shot across the sky, shrieking from out of the darkness. Hereupon Talep stopped his men and ordered them to put an extra covering of leaves over the waggons.'Now,' he said,'the storm will be on us in a few minutes, and we have done our best to keep the rain out.' We soon discovered, however, that the palm-thatched roofs of our conveyances were by no means watertight. The road grew darker until night seemed to have closed in, and soon flash after flash of lightning kindled a hundred unearthly hues amid the foliage; peals of thunder shook the ground, and rolled away in echoes through the forest; a strong earthy odour announced the approach of rain, which swept with a dull sound along the road, so that for one moment we could mark its drawing near, and the next it was upon us, like a solid sheet of tepid water. The covering of my cart was useless; the water came through like a steady shower-bath. As for the large buffaloes, they plodded along heedless of the storm; but I kept shouting to the men to mind the ditches, as the road was now completely flooded over, and the carts were dragging through mud up to the axles. As long as we had a line of trees to guide us, the men kept the middle of the road; but when once we left these stately signposts in the rear, we were forced to flounder through THE STORM. 39 the mud with ditches six feet wide and as many deep on either side. It was too dark to see far ahead, and the turbid red water was lashed into foam by the bickering rain. The interior of my cart became soaked and slippery, and I was helplessly shunted about from side to side, as the vehicle plunged into the pitfalls of the submerged road. Just as I was making a desperate effort to wedge myself into a corner, I heard a splash and a drowning cry. Talep, waggon, baggage and all, had disappeared into the ditch. I hastened through the slough of mud and water to the scene of the disaster. The driver had dived to extricate the drowning Talep, and brought him up looking little the worse. He next proceeded to unharness his buffaloes, after which he swam them off down the ditch, and was followed by his companion and their other pair of beasts, before I had even time to remonstrate. Quite unprepared for such a piece of cool audacity, I would have fired over the heads of the vagabonds to bring them to reason, but my firearms were under water. They were off to the nearest campong, to spend the night. The Malays believe in a bountiful Providence, and wait most patiently for its gifts. They believe in fate too. It was'Tuan Alla poonia krajah,' the work of the Almighty, the carts upsetting in the ditch; and so these men would go comfortably to sleep, believing that it was no use kicking against fate. Feeling it impossible to sustain the gravity the situation demanded, I laughed outright, much to the dismay of the unhappy Talep, who was certain that the evil influences of the' anto (ghosts) were on him. Something was to be done. We could not wait 40 I1NDO-CCHINVA AND CHINA. until Providence should disperse the deluge, or draw the cart out of the ditch. It was equally clear we could not of ourselves accomplish either task, nor drag the remaining waggon to my friend's plantation. To make matters worse, my note-book and directions were under water, and neither of us felt inclined for a descent into the ditch. It was growing dark, night was evidently coming on, so we made ourselves hoarse with shouting, and at length were answered by a responsive voice; and pushing on in the direction of the sound, followed by Talep, we reached a cane-field where I again paused to shout, and had not long to wait for a reply, as my friend the planter had come out to meet us, and enjoyed a hearty laugh at our disasters. As to our ruffianly drivers, they knew well enough, he said, where they were, but fearing his wrath, they decamped for the night. Settled at last beneath his hospitable roof, I quickly forgot the day's adventure in the agreeable society of my host. Home and the old country were what we talked of most, and midnight had already gone by, when we betook ourselves to rest. Mr. Cain lit a lamp, showed me to my apartment, and opening a chest of drawers in one corner of the chamber, produced a revolver and sword, gravely handing the weapons to me, with a request that I would stow the one beneath my pillow, and keep the other close at hand. He added confidentially,'that he never felt quite at ease at night unless his arms were ready, for his predecessor and wife had been murdered in this very house by a neighbouring hill tribe.' Here was comforting reflection for a weary man! and with a sensation as new as it was un THEE MALA Y RAID. 4T expected, I lay down like a warrior to my rest'with martial cloak around me.' Soon falling fast asleep, I dreamt of savage tribes. A prisoner in their hands I was to choose one of two alternative deaths. If I objected to being eaten while still alive, I had the liberal option of being cooked, a limb at a time. The cannibals were on the point of seizing their victim, when I suddenly awoke, and found Cain himself standing over me with a drawn sword, flashing in the feeble lamplight. The next moment he had dragged me out of bed.'Follow me i! follow me,' he cried,'with revolver and sword, just as you are. The hill men are on us.' I slipped on my shoes, and plunged into the darkness, where I soon lost sight of my leader. I could still hear his voice calling'Make for the fires! make for the fires! my God, they are burning the coolie houses!' I shaped ny way as straight as I could towards the light of the nearest fire, plunging and floundering as I progressed now over fields, and now through swampy ground. At last I reached a house, and could distinguish the moans of some one in pain. I found that the building had fallen down, and was aflame at one end. Hailing the sufferer, he replied in Malay that he was killed. In my effort to get at him I stumbled over a huge warm body, and the next moment rteceived a poke in the ribs, which warned me that I had narrowly escaped being impaled on the horns of a huge water buffalo stretched out in the shed. As to the man who declared himself killed, he had been slightly bruised by a falling rafter; and we found that we were the victims of a false alarm, for the storm, which burst forth with renewed violence during the night, had blown down the coolie houses and these had somehow 42 IVD 0-CCHINAi 4 A.ND CHINA. taken fire. We were none the worse for the adventure. I certainly suffered some inconvenience from a number of leeches which I had to pick off my body, but next day I slept none the less soundly on this account. Before leaving this strange out-of-the-way place, I was shown a huge man-eating alligator which had been trapped in an adjoining stream. It appeared that a labourer on the bank was bathing his child, when the monster caught the babe between its jaws, and disappeared. The alarm spread; the entire gang of coolies assembled, dammed the stream at two places, and finally secured the reptile with a baited hook. In another part of the province I fell in with a planter who proved a rather eccentric sort of character, and whom I shall call Mr. Berry. He lived quite alone, and we made up a party to pay a visit to his plantation. The roads through the fields were everywhere bad, but became more especially so as we neared the house, and we kept falling into deep holes filled up with wood and rubbish. Mr. Berry admitted on each occasion that the hole was a bad one, perhaps as bad as any to be found on his estate,'but hearing you were coming,' said he,' I had just put a cart-load of fire-wood into the cavity to make it good.' Mr. Berry was a man of middle age, wearing a sa but not unpleasant expression on his face, and spoke in an accent of broad Scotch. He informed us, amongst other things, in languid tones of regret, that he had just been doctoring the fire-bars of his engine, as he had no engineer to help him. He then invited us to his house, which had an air of solitude and desolation. Berry, however, as he stepped on to his balcony said, TAME BIRDIS. 43'Wait a bit, and I will introduce you to some of my friends.' We therefore held back, and allowed our host to walk to the front verandah alone. There we saw him stretch out his hand and, whistling gently and soothingly, a bird came fluttering from the foliage, and perched upon his finger.'This wee birdie,' said Berry to us,' had once a mate, and the twa used to come at my whistle and take their meals beside me; but now the hen's gone, I've not seen her for some months. She's dead, and left this lad to my care, and I feed the bonny wee thing every morning.' The scene was strange and touching; and although Berry was goodnaturedly chaffed for his isolation, it was useless to endeavour to force him into freer and healthier habits. He was plainly a man of gentle and very retiring disposition, but still it was puzzling to make out by what means he had managed to tame the birds which found a home among the weeds and fruit-trees of his garden. 44 INVDO-CHIINA AND CHINA. CHAPTER III. Chinese Guilds; their Constitution and Influence-Emigration from China-A Plea for unrestricted Female Emigration-The Perak Disturbances-Chinese Tin-mining-Malacca-Singapore-Its Commerce and People-Stuffing an Alligator — The Horse-breaker-Chinese Burglars-Inland Scenery-A Foreign Residence-Amusements-A Night in the Jungle-Casting Brazen Vessels-Jacoons. GUILDS and secret societies would seem almost indispensable to the individual existence and social cohesion of the Chinese who settle themselves in foreign lands. If this were not really the case, it would be hard to say why we tolerate native institutions of this sort in the Straits Settlements at all, for they have proved themselves, and still continue to be, the cause of constant trouble to the government. Avowedly established to aid the Chinese in holding their own, not in commercial circles only, but politically against the authorities, and to set our laws, if need be, at defiance, it can nevertheless hardly be doubted that some of the rules laid down for the guidance of their members are good ones, and embody precepts of the highest moral excellence; but other most objectionable instructions are to be met with, of which the following affords a good example; and from it we may perceive the reason why our officials, both in the Straits and in China, are so often baffled in detecting crime.l'If a brother 1 Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India. Cameron. POLITICAL G UIeDS. 45 commits murder or robbery, you shall not inform against him, but you shall not assist him to escape, nor prevent the officers of justice from arresting him.' In connection with the foregoing, let us take another of their regulations.' If you do wrong, or break these laws, you shall come to the society to be punished, and not go to the authorities of the country.' From the two specimens here given, we can get some insight into the obstacles which the Chinese secret societies manage to raise up to shield offenders from justice. So far as my half-score of years' experience goes, I believe that under the rule first quoted a Chinaman is clearly enjoined to conceal the facts of a brother's crime even in a court of law; and as perjury on behalf of a friend is esteemed an undoubted sign of high moral rectitude, and as in our courts a false witness has no torture to dread, no rack nor thumbscrews, the successful disclosers of secrets in China, he lies without let or hindrance, and thus the all-powerful society so effectually conceals a member's guilt as to render Chinese testimony practically useless. These societies are imitations of similar institutions in every province of the Chinese empire, where the gentry combine to resist the oppression of a despotic government, and the peasantry unite in clans and guilds to limit the power of local officials and of the gentry, and to promote their own commercial and social interests. The Chinaman, however poor he may be, has great faith in the infinite superiority of his own country, government and people, over all others; and when he emigrates to some foreign land he at once unites in solemn league with his clansmen to resist what he honestly deems its barbarous laws and 5 46 IND O- CHIN4A AND CHINA. usages. He has 1o belief in a liberal and pure form of administration. After years spent, it may be, in some English colony or in America, he will yet be unable to shake off the feeling, that he, in a great measure, owes his success abroad to the protecting influence of some powerful clan or guild. Such societies were at the bottom of the disturbances that threatened Singapore in I872, and the principal rioters concerned on that occasion were of the class described as the'Sam-sings' or fighting men, whereof each society has always a certain number in its pay. The immediate cause of these riots was the enforcement for the first time of a new ordinance, designed to regulate or'suppress,' as the Chinese chose to believe, a certain class of street hawkers. These hawkers, always useful, if not always innocent members of a Chinese community in Singapore and elsewhere in the East, naturally felt aggrieved at having the prospects of their livelihood curtailed. Some of them went so far as to resist the rough interference of the police. Their case was taken up by the fighting men in various quarters of the town, the Sam-sings, whom Mr. Whampoa (an old Chinese gentleman for many years resident in Singapore) thus describes:'They live by looting, and are on the watch for any excuse for exercising their talents. Each hoey, or society, must have so many of them, but I don't know any means of ascertaining their number. I suppose they are paid by the hoeys and brothels. They are regular fighting people, and are paid so much a month. If there is any disturbance, these people go out in looting parties; whether ordered by the head men or not, CH2INESE VILLAGE FEUDS. 47 I cannot say; perhaps they do it on their own account.' From the same report I gather that such characters are at the present time plentiful, as they have been driven out of the neighbourhood of Swatow, in the south of China. In a previous work 1 I have noticed the disturbed state of a part of the province of'Kwang-tung,' and the strong measures taken by'Juilin,' the present governorgeneral of the two Kwang, for the restoration of order. But some of the lawless vagabonds who escaped the vengeance of Juilin have settled in Singapore and other British possessions, and there under the protecting wings of their guilds they obtain frequent and lucrative employment in the shape of pillage or perhaps murder. At first sight it seems strange that the Sam-sings should find scope for their villanies in a British colony; even greater scope, one would be apt to imagine, than they find under the corrupt government of their own disorganised land. But any disinterested observer who has travelled through China will agree with me in this, that however far behind in other respects, the Tartar rulers, when it suits their convenience, (except when the population is in actual revolt), know very well how to deal with and keep down marauders with a very strong hand; so much so is this the case, indeed, that the scum of the population is frequently driven to seek refuge in emigration to more congenial climes. One element which operates successfully in maintaining order in China, is the superstitious reverence which the Chinese have for their parents. Should a son commit a crime and abscond, his parents are liable to be punished in his stead. This law, even supposing it Illusrations of China and its people. 48 IVDO-CHI12V4 AVD CHINA. were put in force in a foreign land, would not affect the immigrants, as they seldom bring their wives or parents with them; and to this fact alone —the absence, that is, of the strong family ties held so sacred by the race-we may attribute much of the difficulty encountered by our authorities in dealing with the crime and vice of this section of the population. It must also be borne in mind that a Chinese ruffian, who would soon be brought to justice (unless he could purchase immunity) if he were practising on his countrymen in a Chinese city, enjoys, on the contrary, the countenance and support of his compatriots in a town such as Singapore. For there he commits his depredations on men of foreign extraction; and the avenger of blood from whom he is hidden away is after all only an officer of those'white devils,' whom it is the Chinaman's delight anywhere and everywhere to oppose. A few of the Chinese immigrants marry Malay women, and settle permanently in the Straits; but the majority remain bachelors. If any one, perchance, is unable to realise the hope of returning to his native village, if he should die on foreign soil, his friends expend the savings of the deceased in sending his body back to mingle with the dust of his forefathers in China. Thus we find a steady stream of the living and the dead passing to and fro between the Straits Settlements and the southern provinces of this'Flowery Land.' Surely something might be done, in framing our treaties, to alter all this, and to improve the social and moral condition of the Chinese immigrants who land in our tropical possessions. In certain districts of China the women are so greatly in excess of the CHINESE FEMALE EMIGR ATION 49 men, that many girls are still sacrificed in their infancy by their parents. A small proportion of this surplus female population is annually drawn off by native agents, who purchase them for a few dollars and ship them, often as involuntary emigrants, to foreign ports where their![iliiI~[ CHINESE LABOURERS FROM THE KWANGTUNG PROVINCE. countrymen abound, and where they are imprisoned in opium-dens, and brothels, until their price and passagemoney have been redeemed by years of prostitution. This vile type of emigration, like everything in Chinese hands, has long been systematised, and is protected by native hoeys established at different ports. I have no doubt that the coolies, who frequently leave their 50 IND O- CHINA A4ND CHINA. wives and families behind in China, would gladly bring their partners with them if permitted by government to do so, and if they themselves felt that degree of security in their prospects abroad which the laws of a Christian country ought to inspire. The free immigration of women should also be encouraged, for Chinese girls not only make excellent domestic servants, but are useful field labourers, and they would soon find industrious partners among their countrymen. This plan would also tend to check female infanticide in those regions of China from which the tide of emigration mainly flows I have already drawn attention to the Chinese faction fights in Perak. Perak is a Malayan state to the south of Quedah, and with a coast line which adjoins Province Wellesley. The tin mines there have long been famous, and have attracted a large Chinese mining population. Hence it would appear that the Chinese owners of these mines found themselves strong enough to get the upper hand, and to do pretty well what they chose with the local authorities. The original scene of the recent disturbances was a small stream at the Laroot mines. One Chinese society took upon itself to divert the streamr from its old course, and thus deprive the mines, on a lower level, of its use in washing the tin. The aggrieved hoey applied to the native rulers of Perak against their rival countrymen; but the Muntrie, or inferior Rajah, proving unable to settle the dispute, either by arbitration or by force, the Chinese proceeded to drive him from the country, and settle the matter between themselves by the free use of arms. PERAK AND LAJ4ROOT. 51 In addition to the claims of our own commercial interests, we are bound under a treaty to protect the Sultan of Perak and the Rajah Muntrie of Laroot in the event of domestic disturbance. Accordingly Sir Andrew Clarke, the present Governor of the Straits, adopted measures to restore order in the disquieted province, where one of the contending parties had been expelled by its rivals, and had taken temporarily to piracy for a living. Peace has at length been re-established, and the country placed under the direct protection of the British flag. A provisional treaty has been drawn up, and a resident English officer is to act conjointly with the Rajah Muntrie of Laroot in the administration of the country. All this appears to be satisfactory; and I only hope that the decisive steps taken by the Governor of the Straits will meet with approval and confirmation at home, for the suppression of piracy and riot is of vital importance to trade; and the metallic wealth of the country, which passes through the hands of our merchants in Penang, is in itself something worth guarding. A small strip of the Perak coast, with a depth of five miles inland, has now been ceded to our authorities, and I hope to see the same transformation take place there which has happened in Province Wellesley, where foreign capital and machinery are busy in the production of sugar. In Perak the tin mines are entirely in the hands of the Chinese, but there is a wide field for the introduction of modern mining appliances. We may form some notion of the methods of Chinese mining from what a recent writer in the' Penang Gazette' tells us on the subject. A Chinaman, when he is prospecting for the metal, fills half a 52 INDO-CCHINA AND CHINA. cocoa-nut shell with the earth; and when he has washed this, if he finds that the residue of metal will fill a space equal in capacity to two fingers, he concludes it will pay him to work the mine. But when he opens his mine, he will sink a shaft no more than a few feet deep, fifteen or twenty at the most; indeed, he can never be prevailed on to go down to a depth where he is no longer able to raise the water that gathers in the hole by means of his simple but ingenious chain-pump. When the shaft has become too deep for the power of this machine, he abandons it, and never dreams of tunnelling. The wage of the common Chinese miner is about one shilling a day, and the profit per cwt. of the pure metal laid down free of all charge in Penang, is supposed to be about three pounds ten shillings. I paid a passing visit to Malacca, but finding it neither an interesting nor a profitable field, I made but a short stay in the place. Malacca is a quaint, dreamy, Dutch-looking old town, where one may enjoy good fruit, and the fellowship and hospitality of the descendants of the early Portuguese and Dutch colonists. Should any warm-hearted bachelor wish, he might furnish himself with a pretty and'attractive-looking wife from among the daughters of that sunny clime; but let him make no long stay there if indisposed to marry, unless he can defy the witchery of soft dark eyes, of raven tresses, and of sylph-like forms. It is a spot where leisure seems to sit at every man's doorway; drowsy as the placid sea, and idle as the huge palms, whose broad leaves nod above the old weatherbeaten smug-looking houses. Here nature comes laden MA AA CCA. 53 at each recurring season with ripe and luscious fruits, dropping them from her lap into the very streets, and bestrewing the bye-ways with glorious ananas, on which even the fat listless porkers in their wayside walks will hardly deign to feed. It is withal a place where one might loiter away a life dreamily, pleasantly, and uselessly. These are but passing impressions, and Malacca may yet, after all, develop into something in every way worthy of the Straits which bear its name. Malacca is doubtless interesting from a purely historical point of view, for it was once the seat of a Malayan monarchy, powerful probably in the thirteenth century, when the Cambodian Empire was already on the decline. At a later date, the city became one of the chief commercial centres established by the early Portuguese. Singapore, so far as we know, has no ancient and engrossing history. I gather, from old Chinese and European maps, that the original'Singapura' was a section of territory on the mainland of the Malayan peninsula, and not the island which now bears its name and usurps its place in ancient history. It has risen, as my readers are aware, since its annexation by Sir Stamford Raffles, to a position of great commercial and political importance. Not many years ago it was a mere desolate jungleclad island, like hundreds of others in the Eastern seas, with a few fisher huts dotted here and there along its coast. But there is no need for me to dwell on the recent history of'the place. When I first saw the settlement in I86i I was startled by the appearance of the European town, and since that time it has been yearly registering its substantial progress in 54 INDO- CHINA A4ND CHINIA. steadily increasing rows of splendid docks, in bridges, in warehouses, and in government edifices. During these few years it has passed through strange vicissitudes of fortune. At one time the harbour and roads were crowded with square-rigged ships, Chinese junks, and Malay prahus. Now, were we to take these as the true indications of the trade of the port, we should at once conclude that its commerce had rapidly declined, for comparatively few sailing craft are to be seen there at any season of the year. But we must bear in mind that within that period the march of progress (though almost imperceptible to those who have dwelt continuously in these distant regions) has been rapid and startling in its results. A submarine cable has brought Singapore within a few hours of London, while the opening of the Suez Canal, and the establishment of new steam navigation companies engaged in the China trade, have, to a great extent, done away with the fleets of clipper-built ships that formerly carried the produce from China and Singapore, by the long Cape route, to England. In the same way the absence of Chinese junks may be accounted for by increased facilities afforded to native, as well as foreign trade, through steam navigation in the China seas. The Chinese and the Japanese too, for that matter, are gradually learning to take the full benefit of the advantages which have thus been brought to their doors. They travel as passengers, and ship their goods by European steamers. This is not all; they are now themselves organising steam navigation companies of their own. The trade of Singapore, save in times of unusual depression, continues steadily to advance, and SINGAPORE. 55 since the transfer of the Straits Settlements to the Colonial Office, their commerce is reported to have increased twenty-five per cent. In Commercial Square-the business centre of Singapore, where buyers and sellers most do congregate-the visitor will find men of widely different types, and a great variety of nationalities; among them all, perhaps, the most conspicuous is the dark statuesquelooking Kling from the Malabar coast, motionless beside his gharry, or darting out from the deep shade of the trees to present his active little pony and neat conveyance before some warehouse, which he has long been watching with a hawk's eye in the hope of a hire. Half-a-dozen at least of his fellow-countrymen crowd up as quickly to the spot as he, and vent their disappointment in noisy gabble, when one more lucky than they rattles down the road with the prize; a pleasure party, perhaps, arrayed in white, and making the most of the short time at their command in a survey of the beauties of the island, which are neither few nor far between. Let us imagine ourselves on the spot. The square rings with that babel of sounds which quarrelling Klings alone know how to raise. Baulked in their hopes, these gharry-men have it out among themselves, and deafen the passers-by with a jargon of most unmusical sounds. These Klings seldom if ever resort to blows, but their language leaves nothing for the most vindictive spirit to desire. Once, at one of the landing-places, I observed a British Tar come ashore for a holiday. He was forthwith beset by a group of Kling gharry-drivers; and finding that a volley of British oaths was as nothing when pitted against the Kling vocabulary, and that no half-dozen of them would 56 IND O-CHINA AND CHINA. stand up like men against his huge iron fists, he seized the nearest man, and hurled him into the sea. It was the most harmless way of disposing of his enemy, who swam to a boat, and it left Jack in undisturbed and immediate possession of the field. Commercial Square is made up of buildings both old and new. There are the shops, the stores, the banking-houses, and the merchants' offices. There Europeans and Chinese pursue their various occupations. But the rows of new buildings, with their colossal proportions, cast a cool shade over the less assuming, antique, green-venetianed structures, erected in'the good old days,' in times when the residents might hear once in six months from home, and when two or three successful shipments of produce from the'spice islands' might bring a princely fortune to their proprietor.' Those were good times indeed,' said a worthy but unfortunate old merchant to me.'We lived then above our offices, a small but a very happy community. Now we might almost as well live in London as here; steam and telegraph bring us daily into communication with the old world. Our Sundays are not our own. By night and by day we are at work, writing for the mail.' His words fell little short of the truth. If we follow the lon', cool alleys which separate the blocks of buildings, fragrant odours of spices meet us on every side. Then suddenly we come upon an open court or warehouse, with piles of block tin glistening in the dim light, and with shiploads of pepper, tapioca, sago, gutta-percha, ratans, and other oriental products, awaiting exportation, or being carried busily by Chinese coolies to the ships. The lifting power of these Herculean coolies is startling 'i~~~~l'{l(!itl t!1111111' ~iii~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~t~~~l! l~,Itit~ "1%'