THE RESCUE.
"We started on the instant. As we approached the beach I could see something like a human form, and told the man to pull with all his might. He did so; and the instant the boat grounded on the sand, he sprung ashore and drew a flask from his pocket. In half a minute he was supporting the lifeless form of a woman, and holding the flask to her lips.
"We could hardly tell at first whether she was alive or not. In alittle while the draught from the flask revived her, but it was some time before she was able to speak. We wrapped her in our spare clothing, and carried her to the boat; and then we rowed home as fast as we could, so as to call in the aid of the doctor.
ON A FRAIL RAFT.
"Nothing could be seen to show what had become of the man. When the lady recovered, she told us that when the squall struck the boat it was instantly capsized; they managed to make a sort of raft out of the sail and mast, but it was only sufficient to support her alone. Her husbandremained in the water, clinging to the raft and swimming, while she was in a half-fainting condition all through the night. She remembered how the waves rolled around them, how the moon rose up out of the waters, and how the birds flew near them, as if wondering what they were. Then she thought she could see the great rock at the entrance of the harbor, and then—she remembered nothing more till we rescued her on the beach where the waves had washed her.
"What became of her husband we never ascertained; but undoubtedlyhe was weak from exhaustion, and was unable to cling to the raft till it reached the shore. He probably loosened his hold, and sunk in the sea about the time his wife thought she discovered the rock.
"The lady remained in the village till she was able to return to her friends in the city. She never came back to that place; and the accident cast a gloom over the visitors, from which they did not recover for the rest of the season."
GULF-WEED.
As they neared the Straits of Malacca, the steamer passed great masses of a yellowish plant floating on the water. It bore an abundance of berries of the same general color as the plant, and they glistened brightly in sunshine as they lay close to the surface. The Doctor told the boys that this plant was identical with one that grows in the Caribbean Sea, and is borne northward in great quantities by the current of the Gulf Stream. On the Atlantic it is known as "gulf-weed;" it grows only in tropicalregions, and the berries upon the plant are hollow, and serve as so many air-bladders to keep the plant afloat.
HAUNTS OF THE SEA-BIRDS.
As they neared Singapore, they came in sight of some rocky islands, round which the sea-birds were flying in dense masses. Then other and larger islands, covered with verdure, rose above the horizon to the southward; and, finally, the coast of Malacca and the shores of the Island of Singapore filled the background of the picture before them. Palm-trees waved in the breeze, and, if there had been nothing else to indicate it, these trees alone would have told the travellers they were well down in the tropics.
The activity of commerce through the Straits of Malacca, and thence onwards to the Farther East, was indicated as our friends approached Singapore. Within a few miles of that port, they met a steamer bound for China; while ahead of them was the smoke of another that had just come from that distant land. As they entered the harbor they met a steamer heading southward for Java; and as they dropped anchor they saw another coming in just behind them. It was the French Mail Packet from Europe, which would halt a day at Singapore, and then continue her voyage to Hong-kong and Shanghai.
The Doctor had made a close calculation concerning their movements, as the French steamer that arrived almost simultaneously with them was the bearer of a dozen letters for the wandering trio. So regular is the mail-service to the Far East, that a traveller who takes the trouble to study the time-tables and arrange his route beforehand, can have his letters reach him at any designated point.
IN THE HARBOR.
The harbor presented a picture of animation as they came to anchor. Ships and boats were sailing in and out; steam-tugs were puffing noisilyaround; and, as they swung to their moorings, the official boat of the quarantine-officer passed them on its way to the French packet. Very soon the steamer was surrounded by a group of native boats, and a lively bargaining began for the transportation of the party to the shore. In the Far East the steamers have no concern with the passenger beyond carrying him from port to port; he must land and embark at his own expense, and very often the boatmen have things pretty much in their own way. In Japan and China they are regulated and restrained by law; but in Singapore and some other Eastern ports they do pretty much as they please.
BOATMEN AT SINGAPORE.
Frank said that the rapacity of the boatmen of Singapore reminded him of the hackmen of New York; and he began to feel that he was not so far from home after all. It required half an hour of negotiation to make an arrangement that was at all reasonable, as the boatmen had evidently formed an association for mutual advantage; and all efforts that the Doctor made to rouse them to competition were of no use. It was finally settled that for a dollar each our friends were to be carried to the shore, and their baggage taken to the hotel, which was not more than a hundred yards from the landing-place.
The hotel was a large structure of one story in height, with broad verandas, where one could sit and enjoy the breeze that generally blows in the afternoon. Singapore is only one degree and twenty minutes north of the equator—eighty miles—and consequently any one who goes there must expect to find a climate of a most tropical character. Longitudinally it is almost exactly on the opposite side of the earth from New York; and this fact gave rise to some interesting comments by Fred and Frank.
"It is sunset now," said Frank, as they went on shore, "and it is sunrise in New York."
"Yes," answered Fred; "and about the time we are going to bed our friends will be finishing breakfast."
"While we are taking our noonday rest to-morrow they will be sleeping soundly, as it will be midnight with them."
"One question occurs to me," said Frank; "it is sunset in Singapore, and it is morning with our friends at home. Now I want to know if it is this morning, or to-morrow morning with them?"
Fred could not tell, and so the matter was referred to the Doctor as soon as he was at leisure.
"The scientific explanation of the subject," said Doctor Bronson as he dropped into a chair, "is too long for us to take up in detail. The earth moves on its axis, so that the sun rises, or appears to rise, in theeast, and to set in the west. An easterly place gets the sun earlier than a westerly one, and consequently its day begins earlier. For instance, the sun rises in New York an hour and five minutes earlier than it rises in St. Louis; and, therefore, when it is noon in New York, it is only five minutes of eleven in the forenoon at St. Louis by New York time. For nautical purposes most nations take the time of Greenwich, near London, as the basis of calculation; and consequently the time of any given place is said to be earlier or later than that of Greenwich, according as the place is east or west of that city. The hour of Singapore is seven hours earlier than that of Greenwich, as it gets the sun in the east seven hours before Greenwich; New York gets it five hours later than Greenwich—four hours and fifty-six minutes is the exact difference; and when it is noon in New York, it is five o'clock in the afternoon at Greenwich.
"We had sunrise in Singapore twelve hours before our friends had it at home; so that, when our day is ending, theirs is just beginning. I will show you, in a practical way, the difference in time between New York and Singapore. I am about to send a cablegram announcing our arrival, and it may possibly get to New York ahead of the time of its departure from here."
The Doctor and the boys went to the telegraph-office, and sent a despatch to let their friends know of their safe arrival from Siam. As the tolls were at the rate of two dollars and forty cents a word, they confined the message to a single word in addition to the address. Previous to leaving home the Doctor had arranged a code or cipher, by which one word could convey a great deal of information. Persons who have occasion to use the Atlantic or other telegraph cables to any extent make use of private codes, and thereby save a great deal of expense. They subsequently learned that their message went from Singapore to New York in nine hours, and therefore reached its destination three hours before they sent it.
The wind, which had been blowing hard during the afternoon, fell off soon after sunset, and the boys found that the nights of Singapore were as warm as those of Bangkok. The arrangement of the rooms indicated that Singapore was anything but a cool place; but, on the whole, it was not disagreeable, as the cool breeze in the afternoon was quite refreshing, and made the atmosphere clear and pure.
Our friends slept well on their first night in Singapore, and were up in good season in the morning to begin their round of sight-seeing. The Doctor had some business to transact at a banking-house in the city, and so it was arranged that they would devote the time between breakfastand business hours in a stroll along the esplanade and through the native part of the place.
A CHINESE CONTRACTOR.
The boys were somewhat surprised at the many races and tribes of men they encountered in their morning walk. They met scores on scores of Chinese; and they were not ten yards from the door of the hotel before they were accosted by a Chinese contractor, who was ready to undertake to show them the place, furnish them with a carriage, buy or sell whatever they wanted, from a needle up to a steamship, or provide them with servants, tailors, or any other kind of assistance they might need during their stay. He was lightly clad, in consequence of the heat of Singapore, and he carried a fan which he kept in constant motion while proposing his services. Singapore is said to contain from eighty to one hundred thousand Chinese, and they are found in all classes of business. There are Chinese tailors and shoemakers, Chinese peddlers and merchants, Chinese book-keepers and managers for the large establishments where trade is conducted by wholesale, Chinese servants of both sexes and all ages, and Chinese of all kinds in addition to the foregoing. The industry of the race is as marked at Singapore as in Canton or San Francisco; and though always desirous of large profits, if they can be obtained, they will put up with very small compensation when a large one is not to be had.
CHINESE TAILORS AT SINGAPORE.
The door of a tailor's shop stood open, and our friends gave a glance at its interior. The arrangements were very simple. There was a long table covered with a straw mat, on which the material was placed to be cut, and behind this table several men were at work. Frank made a note of the fact that a Chinese tailor makes his stitches by pushing the needle from instead of towards him, and that in Singapore, at least, they do not cover their own bodies to any extent while making clothing for other people. The heads of these tailoring establishments are very industrious in looking for customers, and there was hardly an hour in the day that our friends were not accosted with proposals to make clothing for them at astonishingly low rates. Singapore is a free port, and the great competitionin trade has brought the prices down to the lowest figure. For eight dollars each they were accommodated with entire suits of blue serge of good quality; and when the Doctor expressed some hesitation at giving the order, through fear that the cutting and fit might be at fault, the tailor promptly said, "No fitee, no payee." The measures were taken, and on the following morning the clothes were delivered, and found entirely satisfactory.
The Chinese are more numerous at Singapore than any other race. Next to them come the Malays, of whom there are several varieties: they are as devoid of clothing as the Chinese workmen, the entire garments of many of them consisting of a cloth around the loins. Some of them wear turbans, and occasionally the turban seems larger than the man, as it consists of several yards of muslin wound loosely around the head, till it forms a great ball. The body of the wearer will be small, and without an ounce of extra flesh; and Fred remarked that it seemed as though the turban would tip the man over, and compel him to walk on his head.
In their walk the boys saw a group of wild-looking men with woolly hair, and with skins as dark as those of the African negroes, but withoutthe thick lips which are supposed to indicate the negro race. The Doctor was unable to tell the name of this people, and the question was referred to an Englishman whom they happened to meet.
"You mean those people over there?" said the Englishman, as he pointed with his finger to the group our friends had been observing.
The Doctor assented.
"Oh! they are Jacoons," was the reply. "They come from the province of Johore."
A GROUP OF JACOONS.
Further questioning elicited the information that the Jacoons were a primitive race of men who lived in the forests of Johore, and are popularly supposed to dwell in trees, and to subsist on fruits and nuts. Johore is a province on the main-land of the Malay peninsula, and separated from the island of Singapore by a narrow strait of water. The chief of this province is a man of superior intelligence, and lives on friendly terms with his English neighbors. Since the English settled at Singapore, he has established saw-mills, and made a handsome revenue from the sale of lumber; and he has opened up his territory to settlement by Chinese and other agriculturists. The Jacoons are supposed to be the original inhabitants; they have as little as possible to do with the Malays, and are quite distinct from them in language and features. They are a peaceful people with few wants, and, as the country produces abundantly, they have little occasion to wear themselves out with hard work.
Walking about the streets, or sitting in the shade of the numerous trees, were a few Parsees with their rimless hats, and wearing garments that were more than half European in pattern. They are called sometimes the Jews of the East, from their remarkable shrewdness in business, and their steady progress in thedirection of wealth; they are said to be able to accumulate money under very discouraging circumstances, and it has been remarked that a Parsee will grow rich where any other man in the world would starve. Some branches of trade in the East are almost monopolized by the Parsees. A single Parsee house has more than half of the Chinese opium trade in its hands, and has grown enormously rich, while its competitors have lost money. Like the Jews, to whom they are sometimes compared, the Parsees have no country they can call their own. They came originally from Persia, and settled in the North of India, where the most of them are to be found to-day.
GARRI WITH A LOAD OF SAILORS.
There were Klings, or men from the South of India, waiting for work on the corners, or offering theirgarris, or carriages, for the use of our friends. Most of the carriages for hire in Singapore are driven by these Klings, who are a lithe race, with great powers of endurance, and equally great powers of rascality. A garri is a four-wheeled vehicle drawn by a single horse: some of the garris have seats for the driver, while others have no place for him, but leave him to walk or run by the side of his beast. The horse is as small in proportion as the man, and the boys were greatly amused to see one of these vehicles with a party of sailors who had just come on shore from an English ship. Three of them were inside, whileone was stretched along the roof of the garri, which he more than covered. They were evidently enjoying themselves, and the driver had his nose in the air, and was doubtless counting up the profits of his day's work, and feeling happy over the result.
The boys were surprised to learn that, while there was a population of more than a hundred thousand Chinese, Malays, Klings, and other Orientals at Singapore, there were not more than a thousand Europeans living there, exclusive of the English garrison. Of these Europeans the English were the most numerous; the rest were Germans, French, Portuguese, Dutch, and Italians, in the order named, and it was said that the Germans were increasing more rapidly than the English, and threatened to have all the business of the place in their hands in course of time.
While our friends were discussing the peculiarities of the population of Singapore, their walk brought them to "The Square," as the commercial centre is called; and, as the hours of business had arrived, the Doctor proceeded to attend to his financial affairs, and learn, in a practical way, the mysteries of banking at the capital city of the Straits of Malacca.
FULL DRESS AT THE STRAITS.
The incidents of the first day in Singapore were well described by Frank and Fred in the letter they wrote in the evening, to make sure that nothing would be forgotten. The labor of writing was divided between them; Frank describing one part of what they saw, and leaving the rest for Fred. As their time was pressing, the Doctor "gave them a lift," as Fred expressed it, and added something relative to the commerce of the straits, and the importance of Singapore as a place of trade.
Here is the joint letter. Frank said that if two heads were better than one, three heads must be better than two. Fred added that when one of the three was the Doctor's head, he thought it would be difficult for any letter to go ahead of theirs.
"We have had a busy day at Singapore. Singapore means 'place of lions;' and probably it is so called because there are no lions here. It stands on an island about twenty miles long and six or eight wide, and is separated from the main-land by a narrow strait. On the main-land there are plenty of tigers, and they sometimes swim over to the island in search of food. Formerly they killed an average of one man a day; but of late years they have not done so well. They are becoming more and more scarce every year, as they have been hunted down till there are not many of them left.
"We had a stroll through the town this morning, and then we went to a banking-house to draw some money. The banker gave us a check on one of the large establishments, and we went there expecting to find an Englishman in charge. We looked around as we entered the door, and not an Englishman or other European was to be seen!
"All the employés of the bank were Chinese—at least as far as we could ascertain. A Chinese paying-teller took the check, and passed it to a Chinese book-keeper, who sat in a little box at the end of the counter. He examined the check, and stamped it after making an entry in abook; and then he returned it to the teller, who counted out the money and gave it to us without saying a word. There were piles of silver and bank notes in sight, and all in charge of Chinese. We looked into another bank, where the same arrangement existed; and we went into a business-house where there were at least a dozen Chinese clerks to one European.
"The business of Singapore is centred around what is called The Square, and in a walk of ten minutes you can pass by the most of the large houses for banking and commerce. Here they have also the consulates and the telegraph and steamship offices; and all these establishments imitate the example of the banks in employing Chinese clerks andcompradors. On the whole, it seems to us that there is very little business of any kind at Singapore that the Chinese have not something to do with.
"The Chinese seem to be crowding the Europeans out of everything; and there is no branch of business that they are not perfectly familiar with. They might send all the English and other foreigners away some pleasant morning, take Singapore into their own hands, and run it just as well as it is run now.
"After we had finished our business with the bank, we took a garri for a drive to the outside of the city.
CHINESE GARDEN AT SINGAPORE.
"There is a famous garden here, belonging to a wealthy Chinese merchant: it is said to be one of the finest gardens in the world, and must have cost a great deal of money. No visitor to Singapore should omit it, even if he has not more than a few hours on land.
"In the first place, Singapore is so near the equator that every kind of tropical tree and plant can grow here in the open air. The mercury shows an average, all the year round, of eighty-five to ninety-five degrees in the shade; and there is hardly any difference between summer and winter. Consequently it is one of the best places, perhapsthebest place, for making a handsome garden, and the enterprising proprietor has kept this fact in mind. Where he is sure the thermometer will never fall below seventy-one degrees, he can grow anything he pleases.
"Such a lot of tropical things you never saw, and hardly ever dreamed of. There were rows on rows of beautiful palms and bamboos, and other things that only grow in the hot regions; and there was a pond with an enormousVictoria regia—the great water-lily that makes ours seem almost like a microscopic object.
"There are said to be more than eighty varieties of the palm; and if there is not a sample of each of these varieties in this garden, I am greatlymistaken. The garden covers a great deal of ground, and has been made with much care and taste. The owner is very proud of it, and always pleased to have strangers go there and admire it. The keeper, and the men under his orders, are very civil; and evidently the owner has told them that if they are not polite to strangers they will be sent away, and people of better manners put in their places.
"The garden contains a collection of tropical animals, but it is not very large. There was an orang-outang, or gorilla, there, and it was wonderfully like a man in its shape and appearance. It was said to have come from Borneo; and, if so, it was not a gorilla, but an orang-outang, as the gorilla is a native of Africa, and not of the Eastern Archipelago.
MATERNAL CARE.
"We were much amused at the comical appearance of a couple ofchimpanzees. They were mother and child, and the mother was gravely occupied in arranging the hair of the youngster. He stared at us with his great round eyes; but she did not look up at all, as she was too much engaged with making the young fellow look well. We had a fine opportunity to see the formation of the feet of this variety of monkey; they have thumbs on the hind feet as well as on the forward ones, and as you look at them you can easily understand the readiness with which these animals can climb trees and swing from the limbs.
"The chimpanzees are said to show a great deal of fondness for each other. There is a story that two of them were once kept in the same cage, and one happened to take sick and die. The other was so affected by grief at the loss of its companion, that it refused all food for more than a week, and was finally forced to take something down its throat when so weak that it could hardly stand. It recovered very slowly, and never seemed to forget the absence of its old friend.
"There is another garden at Singapore which is the property of the city; it contains more animals than the private one, and fewer trees. We went to it, and had a pleasant half-hour among the curiosities it contains. The garden is an excellent thing to show strangers what the tropics can produce in the way of animals and birds, and for this reason we were much interested in it, and sorry when the time came to leave.
RURAL SCENE IN SINGAPORE.
"The drive that we took led us among the forests of cocoa and other palm-trees that extend all over the island, except where clearings have been made. A large part of the land has been put under cultivation by the Chinese settlers, and they have some very pretty farms and gardens, in which they produce all the vegetables that are consumed at Singapore.
"Several kinds of spices grow on the island, and there are some plantations where pepper is cultivated. They raise considerable sugar-cane, but most of it is used for preserves, and is not converted into the sugar of commerce. Then there are lots of cocoa-nuts grown on the island, and there are many varieties of fruits.
FRUIT-SELLERS AT SINGAPORE.
"When we walked through the town in the morning we saw groups of natives selling fruit, and we afterwards saw some of these fruits growing on the trees. They comprised durians, pomegranates, pineapples, custard-apples, mangoes, bananas, and plantains; and we were told that there are more than twenty varieties of the plantain alone.
"The pineapple needs no description, as you have it at home; the custard-apple is about the size of an ordinary apple, and has a soft pulp surrounding the seeds. The best way to eat it is to scoop out the contents with a spoon, and it is this way of eating more than the taste that has given it its name. But the durian is the largest and funniest of all these tropical fruits.
"The durian is like a small pumpkin, with a rough skin so hard and thick that the birds cannot make much impression on it. The seeds are nearly as large as chestnuts, and each seed is surrounded by a soft pulp, just as the stone of a peach is embedded in the body of the fruit. People who live here grow very fond of it, but travellers do not learn to like it until they have made a good many attempts. It is not the taste that repels them, but the smell, and this is something atrocious.
"We have tried to eat it, but could not do so even by holding our noses, for the disagreeable odor would rise in spite of all precautions wecould take. We are told that the best way is to have the servants cut it up and put the pieces in milk, and by taking them out of the milk and swallowing quickly the smell is avoided. Perhaps this might work; but a better plan would be to have the servants eat the stuff up when it was properly prepared, and let you hear nothing more about it.
A BUNGALOW.
"All the merchants who can afford the expense of a bungalow, or private residence outside the city limits, are sure to indulge in it. The consequence is that there are many of these residences; and as they always have plenty of ground around them, and an abundance of shade trees, the bungalows make a very pretty picture, or a succession of pictures. The bungalow has wide verandas and overhanging eaves, and as nobody wants to climb stairways where the heat is as great as in Singapore, you rarely find a dwelling of more than one story. Then these merchants have carriages of their own, and do not depend on the garries; and in the evening their carriages driving along the esplanade road make a fine appearance. The rich Chinese endeavor to live after the manner of the Europeans; they have their bungalows and their carriages, and some of the finest of the latter that we have seen were the property of Chinese merchants. Their passion for fine gardens is greater than that of the Europeans, and several of the bungalows have a very costly surrounding of grounds. The fine garden we have described is not by any means the only one belonging to a Chinese resident of Singapore.
CHINESE GENTLEMAN'S GARDEN.
"The horses they use here are from Australia, and whenever a lot arrives by a ship they have an auction in the square. They say that some of the horses turn out well, and increase rapidly in value; while others seem to be much affected by the climate, and do not last more than ayear or two. The horses fetch good prices, and the trade of bringing them from Australia is said to be quite profitable.
"Everywhere we go we see Chinese. They are of all classes, from highest to lowest, and from honest to dishonest. They are in every kind of business, and they have their guilds or trade associations just as they have them in China. They occupy official positions under the government, and on several occasions there have been Chinese members of the Legislative Council of Singapore. Once in awhile there is trouble between them and the Europeans, arising out of questions of commerce: but for the most part everything runs along smoothly, and the Chinese show a perfect readiness to obey the laws, and live as they ought to live. And speaking of their trades-unions calls to mind an amusing story.
THE GOD OF GAMBLERS.
"They carry the principle of trade association into everything; and the thieves and gamblers have their guilds and gods like the others. The guilds have rules and regulations that are very strict; and if a man violates them he is liable to be expelled, and driven to seek a living by honest means. When thieves wish to commit a robbery, they must consult the officers of the guild and get their permission, and they must pay a certain amount of the profits for the support of the association.
"Sometimes they go in parties of a hundred or more; they surround a house and plunder it by force, and they usually manage it so that the occupants cannot make any resistance. It is said that when a house is to be robbed, the thieves will scatter a narcotic drug about the rooms that has no effect upon themselves, but will put a European to sleep. He sleeps till long after the robbery is finished, and does not suffer the least injury by inhaling it.
"When a thief enters a house to practise his profession, he removes his clothes and oils his body all over. He winds his pig-tail around his head—having previously stuck it full of needles. If anybody attempts to grasp his arm or leg, he slips off like an eel; and, if he is seized by the pig-tail, the person who takes hold of it is sure to let go in a hurry. Who shall say that the Chinese thief is not a shrewd operator?
MALAY BOY IN THE BIRD-MARKET.
"One of the curious things that we saw was the poultry-market. Poultry includes a great deal more here than at home: as we found not only chickens, ducks, geese, and other familiar things, but a great varietyof pigeons, quails, pheasants, and other edible birds from the forest. Then there was an abundance of parrots, lories, cockatoos, and paroquets, besides other birds whose names we did not know. Such a screaming and cackling you never heard in your life. The heat is so great at Singapore that everything to be eaten must be sold alive, as it would begin to decay in a very short time after being slaughtered. Most of the chickens were in coops, or tied together by the legs; and the same was the case with the geese and ducks.
"The parrots, and members of their family, were generally secured by strings to little perches, and they kept up an incessant chattering in the Malay and other Oriental tongues. One was offered to us that spoke English; but, as his vocabulary consisted only of a half-dozen words of profanity, that had been taught to him by a sailor, we declined to purchase. A crowd of men and boys surrounded us with birds in their hands, and on their heads and shoulders; all talked at once, and offered their birds at very low prices. We could have bought paroquets for twenty-five cents; and a talking-parrot, very large, and white as snow, was offered for six dollars, and could have been had for three. How they manage to find a market for all the birds they bring to Singapore it is difficult to imagine.
"You may be interested to know how these birds are brought here, and where they come from. They are from the many islands south of Singapore that form the Malay Archipelago, and they are brought by the natives on speculation. When the south-west monsoon begins, a family starts in its little boat for a voyage of from one to three thousand miles; and the boat is one in which an American would be unwilling to risk a voyage from New York to Boston. They run along from port to port, trading a little wherever they can, and ultimately reach Singapore. The boat has a deck, with a slight awning of woven grass, and is covered withthe family and birds—the latter being numbered sometimes by the hundred. In the hold they have shells, feathers, spices, and other products, and they are constantly making exchanges at the places they visit. They sell their cargoes at Singapore, and buy a lot of cotton-cloth, hardware, and other things that are in demand where they live, and then go back as they came. This accounts for the large number of birds exposed for sale in the poultry-market, and the low prices they are held at.
HEAD OF BLACK COCKATOO.
"Among the birds offered to us there was a black cockatoo, with a splendid head and crest. His bill had a point like a needle, and was very large and strong. We wondered how he could eat, and what he lived on, as the shape of his bill and his lower jaw seemed the most awkward that one could imagine. We asked his owner to feed the bird, andgave him a few cents to show us how the operation of eating was performed.
"The man brought a triangular nut which had a smooth surface, and was so hard that we could not crack it without a hammer. The bird took the nut endwise in his bill; he held it in place by pressing his tongue against it, and then began sawing across it with his lower jaw.
"When he had cut a deep notch in this way, he turned the nut a little, and used the underjaw as a wedge to break off the end. Then he held the nut in one claw, and with the sharp point of his bill he picked out the kernel; and as fast as he brought a bit of it to the light, he seized it with his long tongue. Whether the bird was created for the nut, or the nut for the bird, is a question for the naturalists; at all events, each seems to be perfectly adapted to the other. The fitness of the cockatoo's beak to the process of opening this hard product of the forest is as exact as it could be made.
"While we were in the market a man kept endeavoring to attract our attention to something he had in a large basket; we supposed it was a new kind of bird, and went to see it. It proved to be a large snake, and the man urged us to buy with all the eloquence of which he was capable. We are not buying snakes just now, and so we left him to find another customer.
"Snakes are abundant in this part of the world, and there are all the varieties a man could want. Over on the main-land of Malacca they have some very large ones, and you are liable at any time, when walking in the forest, to come across a huge python swinging across your path. They come into the houses and make themselves at home, and they never wait for an invitation.
"A gentleman who has spent a good deal of time in this region tells an interesting story of a visit that a snake made to him.
"One evening, just as he was going to bed, he heard a noise on the roof overhead, but thought nothing of it. The next day he was lying down with a book in his hand, just after dinner, and, happening to cast his eye upwards, he saw something on the thatch that resembled a large tortoise-shell. It was spotted with yellow and black marks; and while he was wondering who could have put the shell there to dry, he discovered that it was a snake coiled up, and lying asleep.
"The gentleman got up very quickly, and called his servants. As soon as they learned there was a snake on the roof they were greatly frightened, and ran out of the house to call some laborers from the plantation. Several men came, and one of them, who was familiar with thehabits of the snake, proceeded to make a noose of bamboo and slip it over the reptile's head. He succeeded in this, and dragged the snake from the roof; then he took the creature by the tail, and tried to run out of the house with him.
EJECTING AN INTRUDER.
"The snake coiled around the chairs and posts, and gave the man considerable trouble in ejecting him from the premises. As soon as he had his prize outside he had a clear field, and soon made an end of the serpent by dashing his head against a tree. The snake was more than twelve feet long, and was capable of doing serious damage if he had given his attention to it. The gentleman was not in a pleasant frame of mind when he found that he had slept all night with the snake over his head, and had taken his afternoon nap in the same position.
"We haven't seen any tigers for sale, but there is no doubt we could find plenty if we wanted them. What with tigers and snakes and other things, not to mention the heat and the danger of fever, Singapore and the surrounding country do not appear desirable as a permanent residence. Yet there are people who say they like it out here, and are quite willing to stay. We are not of that mind; and nobody who cares to live near the Straits of Malacca need have any fear that we will ever try to get his place away from him.
"We would like to go over to Johore and see what the main-land is like, but we haven't time for the journey. There is a fine road across the island, to where you can take a boat and cross the strait. It is a drive of about fifteen miles, and is said to be very interesting, as it takes you through forests of palms, and past plantations of pepper and gambier. Perhaps you don't know what gambier is? We didn't till we came to the East.
"It is the dried and refined juice of a plant that grows in Malacca, and is much used in dyeing and tanning, and also for stiffening silks. Great quantities of it are shipped from Singapore to Europe, and it forms an important item in the commerce of the place.
"The Maharajah of Johore is the son of the one from whom, in 1819, the English bought the island of Singapore. They gave sixty thousand dollars cash, and pay an annual subsidy of twenty thousand dollars; and they have kept on paying it without complaint. As the place is an excellent market for everything that the region produces, the Maharajah has become rich, and is on the best of terms with the English; he frequently visits the governor and is visited by him in return, and when any person of distinction comes here he is invited to stop as long as he likes at Johore. The Maharajah is a strict Mohammedan, but he has adoptedmany of the features of European life in his household. He has a French cook, and his dinners are servedà la European. When entertaining visitors from England or America, he generally wears a dress-suit after the European manner; and he has so far overcome the prejudices of his religion as to invite ladies to his table.
"The currency of Singapore is the dollar, or, to be more explicit, the Spanish dollar. It is divided into one hundred cents, like our dollar, and all transactions are reckoned in this currency. But you find all kinds of money in circulation—English, French, American, Dutch, and Spanish; and if you want rupees, or any other Eastern currency, you will have no difficulty in getting it. The cosmopolitan character of Singapore is very well illustrated in the many varieties of coin in circulation.
"We have found a new type of mankind here—the Eurasian.
"You will possibly ask, 'What is the Eurasian?'
A NEW TYPE OF MANKIND.
"The word is compounded of 'Europe' and 'Asia,' as you can easily perceive, and the man who bears that name is of mixed European and Asiatic blood. The most of them have adopted the European dress and manners, and refuse to associate with the natives, while, on the other hand, they are not admitted to European society. Consequently they are in an unhappy position, as they are neither the one nor the other, and there does not appear to be any recognized place for them. They have been said to combine the vices of both their parent races, with the good qualities of neither; there are some men of ability among them, but, on the whole, the remark has a great deal of truth in it.
"In Singapore there are many descendants of the early Portuguese settlers of the East; they still preserve the Portuguese language, and adhere to their religion, though sometimes they are rather weak in both. It is a curious factthat, though they preserve the features of Europe, their skins are frequently darker than those of the natives; and the spectacle is not an infrequent one of a man with Caucasian features, and a complexion black as a piece of anthracite coal.
"If you wish to realize the importance of Singapore as a place of trade, you have only to look at a map of the Eastern hemisphere and observe the position of the city. It is a convenient commercial point for China and Japan, for Java and the Malay Archipelago, for Siam, and even for Australia. Ships going between Europe and the far East rarely pass Singapore without stopping, and the great lines of steamships have a large business here. The commerce has steadily increased every year, and there is no sign that it will decline. Some of the old merchants complain that competition has ruined trade; they sigh for the return of the days when they had only one mail a month, and there was no telegraph to give hourly quotations of the prices of goods in all parts of the world. In those days business was confined to a few houses, and the chances of an outsider were slight indeed. Fortunes were sometimes made by a single venture, and not unfrequently a merchant had exclusive information of advances or declines that he could have a whole month to operate upon, without the least fear that anybody would be able to interfere with him.
"Profits are smaller to-day, and capital must be turned very often; the volume of business is far greater than it used to be, and the men who regret the good old times are forced to accept things as they are."
There were several things held in reserve to be seen on the second day in Singapore. Our friends went to the museum and library, which are in a large building near the esplanade or park where people stroll in the afternoon, and not far from the road which forms the fashionable drive. The library is an excellent one, and contains a great number of works on the East; the Doctor spent an hour or more among the books, and, while examining their titles and contents, he came upon a volume which was written by one of his intimate friends in America. It was entitled "Overland through Asia," and described a journey that the author once made across the northern part of the Eastern hemisphere.
There was a fair collection of minerals and other things in the museum, and the boys were interested in a huge python that lay coiled around some rocks in the centre of one of the rooms. The director of the museum told them that the serpent was kept in a cage in the museum for some time, but it was finally determined to kill and stuff him, so that his appearance could be more readily studied by visitors. The work of killing was more serious than had been anticipated; it was done by means of chloroform, as they did not wish to injure the reptile's skin by lacerating it.
A sponge saturated with chloroform was introduced between the bars of the cage, and held over the head of the python as he lay asleep. Instead of being stupefied, he was awakened by it; and he indicated most emphatically, by moving his head away, that he did not like that kind of treatment. He refused to breathe the narcotic, and it became apparent that some means of compelling him to take it must be adopted.
A noose was passed over his head, and he was drawn forward so that his nose was at the bars of the cage. Then the sponge was again applied, and he was forced to inhale the chloroform, whether he wanted to or not. He lashed about from side to side, and sometimes it seemed as though he would tear the cage to pieces with the violence of his demonstrations.All this time he was breathing the narcotic; but it was nearly an hour before he was fairly under its influence, and another hour was required to reduce him to a state of quiet. Even when he had ceased to lash around so as to threaten injury to the cage, his body was constantly giving convulsive twitches, and these did not end for several hours. The gentleman who superintended the operation said that the snake was the worst patient he ever saw under the influence of chloroform, and the hardest to manage.
They took another drive into the country, over a road that had been newly opened. Their way led them near a native village, where the houses were thickly thatched with grass and strips of palm-leaf, so as to keep out the heavy rains that frequently occur. It is said that at Singapore more than half the days of the year are favored with showers, and the records show that in some years they have had two hundred and odd rainy days. The rain cools the air, and it is probably owing to the rain and wind that there are so few cases of fever among the Europeans. Sometimes the wind develops into a lively squall that sets all light things in motion and fills the air with clouds of dust. It frequently happens that the papers on the desk of a merchant will be sent flying about the room, and possibly out of the window; and there are stories of valuable documents and notes of the Bank of England being whisked away, so that their owners never saw them again.