PRISONERS THEIR OWN WARDERS [Illustration: _Frontispiece_ GENERAL MONTHLY MUSTER OF THE CONVICTS, SINGAPORE JAIL. ] PRISONERS THEIR OWN WARDERS A RECORD OF THE CONVICT PRISON AT SINGAPORE IN THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS ESTABLISHED 1825, DISCONTINUED 1873, TOGETHER WITH A CURSORY HISTORY OF THE CONVICT ESTABLISHMENTS AT BENCOOLEN, PENANG AND MALACCA FROM THE YEAR 1797 BY MAJOR J. R A. McNAIR _Late Royal Artillery, C. M. G. , A. M. I. C. E. , F. L. S. , and F. R. G. S Late Colonial Engineer and Surveyor General and Comptroller of Indian Convicts Straits Settlements from 1857 to 1877 Author of "Perak and the Malays" (Sarong and Kris)_ ASSISTED BY W. D. BAYLISS _Mem. Soc. Engineers Lond. , Late Superintendent of Works and Surveys and Superintendent of Convicts, Singapore_ WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS "A willing bondman. " --SHAKESPEARE (_Julius Caesar_, Act I. , Sc. 3) WESTMINSTER ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO 2 WHITEHALL GARDENS 1899 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BUTLER & TANNER, THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS, FROME, AND LONDON. [Illustration: DUFFADAR ARJOON, SENIOR PETTY OFFICEROF ARTIFICERS. _McNair. _] Preface Some explanation appears to be due from us for writing this account ofthe Singapore Convict Jail so long after the date of its finalabolition. The truth is, that for several years it has been our opinion that itought to be written by some one, and the same suggestion had often beenmade to one of us by the late Doctor Mouat, Inspector General of Jails, Bengal, and others who were well acquainted with its administration. An opportunity lately occurred to bring us into communication on thesubject, and when we came to compare the voluminous notes that each ofus had collected during the time that the jail was in full vigour, wearrived at the conclusion that there was abundant material for a workupon it. It also appeared to us that there were some exceptionalfeatures in the training and discipline of these native convicts, thatmight even at this day prove of service to other Superintendents ofnative jails in different parts of India and the Colonies; while, at thesame time, such a work would not be devoid of some interest to those whomake a study of the punishment and reformation of the criminal class ofall countries, a subject in regard to which, in spite of the greatprogress we have made, the last word has certainly not yet been said. This, then, is our apology for the attempt we have made, and we trustthat our joint labours may be received with indulgence. When this old Singapore jail was put an end to in 1873, some six yearsafter the transfer of the Straits Settlements to the Crown, the convictsthen under confinement were removed to the Andaman Islands, at that timenot long established as a penal settlement for India; while those on aticket-of-leave were permitted to merge into the population, continuingto earn their livelihood as artizans, cow keepers, cart drivers, and thelike. Those who were old and infirm were retained at Singapore at theexpense of the Indian Government, and a certain number of convicts fromHongkong were returned to that colony to complete their sentences. Thereremained, therefore, only the local prisoners to be dealt with, and forthese, under the subsequent orders of the Colonial Government, wasplanned and constructed by our Department, and under our supervision, aspacious prison on the cellular system, and situated on a more healthysite than the old convict jail, which had become surrounded by thebuildings of the town. We should much like to have given a consecutive history of this old jailfrom the date of its first construction until it was finally abolished, but unfortunately the jail registers have not been carefully kept fromthe beginning, or are not forthcoming; but we have had access to someold scattered letters and papers, and to statistics from the year 1844, since which time the records have been regularly kept from year to year. A good deal of useful information has also come within our reach fromworks written upon Singapore and the Straits Settlements, and especiallyare we indebted to an _Anecdotal History of Singapore_, published by the_Free Press_, and extending from the year 1822 to 1856, which gives aninteresting account of our early occupation of that island, and of theuse to which the labour of these convicts was turned. From the Memoirs of _Sir Stamford Raffles_, written by his widow in1830, and from his _Life_ by Demetrius Charles Boulger, in 1897, we havebeen able to trace that, so far back as the year 1823, there werebetween 800 and 900 of these Indian convicts at our settlement ofBencoolen, on the south-west coast of Sumatra; and that, when this placewas conceded to the Dutch by the London treaty of 1825, these convictswere removed to Penang, and were subsequently distributed amongst thethree settlements of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore. This distributionwould in all probability have taken place about the year 1825, whenSingapore was incorporated with Penang and Malacca, under the Governorand Council of the Incorporated Settlements. We think the account which we are about to give of the variousemployments of these Indian convicts at Singapore, will abundantly showhow considerably this important settlement has benefited by their earlyintroduction. They made most of the roads in the settlement, includingtimber bridges, viaducts and tunnels, and executed for the Governmentmany important public buildings. Moreover, when released fromimprisonment upon a ticket-of-leave, they were absorbed innoxiously intothe native community, and again contributed to the advantage of theplace in the various occupations they had recourse to, in order toobtain an honest livelihood. By a judicious system of rewards, and agraduated scale of promotion, a very remarkable spirit of industry wasinfused into the bulk of these convicts during their incarceration, andit may be honestly said that this was effected without the sacrifice ofthat wholesome discipline always essential in the control especially ofthe criminal class. We could not, of course, interfere with their religion, but by awell-judged scale of punishments and rewards, and by instruction givento them in their own vernacular, we endeavoured to raise their characterby helping them to good conduct, and to a better way of living. Toencourage and foster that industry to which we have referred, we taughtthem the trades to which each of them appeared to be best adapted, andheld out to them the hope that they might again become good citizens, and earn for themselves a creditable subsistence; and, as it was ourpractice to deal with each of them "individually, " we were often madeaware that there was many an honest heart immured within those prisonwalls. In the narrative we have given of the Settlements, it may seem that wehave dwelt at too great length upon their early history, but we thoughtit would add to the interest of the work, if we gave what is really onlya limited sketch of the various places to which those Indian convictswere first banished beyond the seas. In the initiation of the system of industrial training among theseconvicts, special credit is due to the late General (then Captain) Man, who in his early years had been trained at Chatham as a sapper. The lateColonel Macpherson, who succeeded him, carried on and improved thesystem, and both these officers were well seconded in their efforts bythe late Mr. J. Bennett, C. E. , who practically was their clerk of theworks. Mr. Bennett subsequently rose to a high position in theDepartment. It would be impossible to mention the names of all the subordinatestaff, but Burnett, Stuart, and Lamb are prominent in our recollectionas having done good service as warders and instructors. In 1864, the Resident of Rhio, Java, Mr. E. Netscher, was appointed bythe Dutch Government to study and report upon the convict system inforce in Singapore, and both the Siam and Japan Governments sent specialmissions for the like purpose, the mission from Japan being accompaniedby Mr. Hall, of the British Consulate. Many others, also, recorded theiropinions in its favour, and some among them were authorities upon prisonsystems pursued in some parts of both Europe and America. The local government, we should add, in their direction of this convictestablishment, fully recognised that the distinctive feature in thenative mind was to look to one rather than to many masters, to oneEuropean executive officer rather than to a collective body ofmagistrates, and, therefore, beyond that general supervision which theGovernment must ever assume over its Departments, it committed the wholeof the management, discipline, and control of this large body ofconvicts entirely to their Superintendent, under the approved rules andregulations for his guidance, and for the administration of the wholeestablishment. J. F. A. McNAIR, R. A. , C. M. G. W. D. BAYLISS. SCOTIA, PRESTON PARK, BRIGHTON, SUSSEX. Contents Chapter I EARLY RECORDS OF BENCOOLEN AND OBSERVATIONS ABOUT CONVICTS 1 Chapter II A SLIGHT SKETCH OF PENANG AND THE TREATMENT OF THE CONVICTS THERE 14 Chapter III OLD MALACCA, AND THE FIRST INTRODUCTION OF CONVICTS THERE 25 Chapter IV A RUNNING HISTORY OF SINGAPORE: ITS JAIL SYSTEM AND ADMINISTRATION 31 Chapter V SINGAPORE (CONTINUED) 47 Chapter VI SINGAPORE (CONTINUED) 59 Chapter VII SINGAPORE (CONTINUED) 75 Chapter VIII DIVISION INTO CLASSES, TRADERS, FOOD AND CLOTHING 84 Chapter IX PUBLIC WORKS AND INDUSTRIES 96 Chapter X STORIES ABOUT INDIAN CONVICTS AND EUROPEAN LOCAL PRISONERS 113 Chapter XI ABOLITION OF THE CONVICT DEPARTMENT AND DISPOSAL OF THE CONVICTS 143 Chapter XII DISEASES AND MALINGERING 147 Chapter XIII CONCLUSION 156 APPENDICES 169 List of Illustrations and Plates GENERAL MONTHLY MUSTER OF THE CONVICTS, SINGAPORE JAIL _Frontispiece_ TO FACE PAGE DUFFADAR ARJOON v Plate I OLD MAP SHOWING PENAL SETTLEMENTS 1 Plate II FORT CORNWALLIS, PENANG 14 Plate III BOUNDARIES OF MALACCA, PORTUGUESE PERIOD 25 Plate IV OLD MALACCA 26 Plate V ALBUQUERQUE 26 Plate VI MALACCA RIVER 28 Plate VII ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 28 Plate VIII TOWN AND ENVIRONS OF SINGAPORE 31 Plate IX ORIGINAL HUTS FOR CONVICTS, SINGAPORE 39 Plate X DISTRIBUTION OF JAIL BUILDINGS, SINGAPORE 77 Plate XI MAIN GATE OF SINGAPORE JAIL 78 Plate XII DUFFADAR RAM SINGH 84 Plate XIII HEAD TINDAL MAISTRI 86 Plate XIV CONVICT OF SECOND CLASS AND MUNSHI 88 Plate XV CONVICTS OF FIFTH CLASS, AND FIFTH CLASS SECTION A 90 Plate XVA CHETOO--CONVICT OF FIFTH CLASS 92 Plate XVI CATHEDRAL, SINGAPORE 97 Plate XVII GOVERNMENT HOUSE, GARDEN, AND MORTAR MILL 101 Plate XVIII GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SINGAPORE, APPROACHING COMPLETION 102 Plate XIX GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SINGAPORE, COMPLETED 104 Plate XX CONVICTS STONE-QUARRYING 111 [Illustration: Plate I. ] Chapter I EARLY RECORDS OF BENCOOLEN AND OBSERVATIONS ABOUT CONVICTS In opening this account of the old convict jail at Singapore, it will benecessary to refer, as we have said, in some little detail to thehistory of the settlements of Bencoolen, Penang, and Malacca, to whichconvicts from India were first sent, prior to their reception into theSingapore prison. The first penal settlement was Bencoolen, the Banka-Ulu[1] of theMalays, to which they were transported from India about the year 1787, much about the same time that transportation to Australia for Englishconvicts was sanctioned by our laws. [Footnote 1: Literally, swollen at the source. ] Bencoolen was singularly adapted as a receptacle for convict labour; itwas not a populous place when we took it in 1685, nor, as far as we cangather, had the population much increased up to the year 1787, and thefew Sumatrans and Malays that were its inhabitants were an indolentrace, and preferred a life of ease to any kind of labour. They werecontent to get their livelihood from fishing, and they had no artificialwants. They would occasionally work upon pepper plantations, and wouldbring the berries to Bencoolen for sale to British merchants. Labour wastherefore wanted here, and the East India Company thought that by itsintroduction they would make of Bencoolen a thriving settlement; but asit turned out they were greatly disappointed, for both pepper andcamphor, which were the only commodities there for trade, greatlydeclined; and commerce, which was all-important to the East IndiaCompany, almost entirely disappeared after its establishment for somefew years. It was a miserable place from all accounts, and was describedby Captain James Lowe, in 1836, "as an expensive port, and of no use toany nation that might possess it, " and he only echoed what waspreviously said of it by William Dampier, who had once been there in thehumble position of a gunner, that it was "a sorry place, sorrilygoverned, and very unhealthy. " So unhealthy was it, that it becamenecessary as early as 1714 to remove the Residency and offices to apoint of land about two miles further off the coast, which was calledFort Marlborough; but even this locality was found not to be beyond thereach of malaria, and the place continued, as Crawfurd says, to be moreor less unhealthy down to the cession of the settlement in 1825. But ithad, however, done its work in providing for us a firm footing in thoseseas, and was a help to the next step in our progress towards a widerempire. It is important to relate here that its last Lieut. -Governor was thefounder of our now important settlement of Singapore. He took up theappointment at Bencoolen on the 20th March, 1818, founded Singapore in1819, returned to Bencoolen in 1820, and finally left for England in1824. It is not our present purpose to dwell upon the intellectual and moralgreatness of this remarkable man, for full justice has been done to hismemory in the recent account of his life by Demetrius Boulger, and by animpressive tribute to his worth by General Sir Andrew Clarke, R. E. , G. C. M. G. , in a paper read by him in May last at the Royal Institution. It is of course impossible at this late date to trace what was done inconnection with the convicts on their first arrival at this settlement, though we gather from old letters that they were employed principallyupon road-making, and on clearing estates which, "owing to their ownershaving died intestate, had reverted to the State. " They were also letout to planters on a guarantee as to their not quitting the settlement. The first authentic information we have in regard to the management andtreatment of these convicts is from a letter to the Government by SirStamford Raffles, written from Bencoolen in 1818; which we give bodilyfrom his Life, written by his widow in 1830. It is a paper which givesevidence of the soundness of his views upon this subject, and indeed itmay be truly said, that with every question with which he had to deal healways displayed the greatest judgment and keenness of insight. It is as follows:-- "But there is another class of people that call for immediate consideration. Since 1787 a number of persons have been transported to this place from Bengal for various crimes of which they have been found guilty. The object of the punishment as far as it affects the parties must be the reclaiming them from their bad habits, but I much question whether the practice hitherto pursued has been productive of that effect. This I apprehend to be, in a great measure, in consequence of sufficient discrimination and encouragement not having been shown in favour of those most inclined to amendment, and perhaps to the want of a discretionary power in the chief authority to remit a portion of the punishment and disgrace which is at present the common lot of all. It frequently happens that men of notoriously bad conduct are liberated at the expiration of a limited period of transportation, whilst others, whose general conduct is perhaps unexceptional, are doomed to servitude till the end of their lives. As coercive measures are not likely to be attended with success, I conceive that some advantage would arise from affording inducements to good conduct by holding out the prospect of again becoming useful members of society, and freeing themselves from the disabilities under which they labour. There are at present about 500 of these unfortunate people. However just the original sentence may have been, the crimes and characters of so numerous a body must necessarily be very unequal, and it is desirable that some discrimination should be exerted in favour of those who show the disposition to redeem their character. I would suggest the propriety of the chief authority being vested with a discretionary power of freeing such men as conduct themselves well from the obligation of service, and permitting them to settle in the place and resume the privileges of citizenship. The prospect of recovering their characters, of freeing themselves from their present disabilities, and the privileges of employing their industry for their own advantage would become an object of ambition, and supply a stimulus to exertion and good conduct which is at present wanting. It rarely happens that any of those transported have any desire to leave the country; they form connections in the place, and find so many inducements to remain, that to be sent away is considered by most a severe punishment. While a convict remains unmarried and kept to daily labour very little confidence can be placed in him, and his services are rendered with so much tardiness and dissatisfaction that they are of little or no value; but he no sooner marries and forms a small settlement than he becomes a kind of colonist, and if allowed to follow his inclinations he seldom feels inclined to return to his native country. I propose to divide them into three classes. The first class to be allowed to give evidence in court, and permitted to settle on land secured to them and their children; but no one to be admitted to this class until he has been resident in Bencoolen three years. The second class to be employed in ordinary labour. The third class, or men of abandoned and profligate character, to be kept to the harder kinds of labour, and confined at night. In cases of particular good conduct a prospect may be held out of emancipating deserving convicts from further obligation of services on condition of their supporting themselves and not quitting the settlement. Upon the abstract question of the advantage of this arrangement I believe there will be little difference of opinion. The advantage of holding out an adequate motive of exertion is sufficiently obvious, and here it would have the double tendency of diminishing the bad characters and of increasing that of useful and industrious settlers, thereby facilitating the general police of the country and diminishing the expenses of the Company. " These intentions were acted upon afterwards, and the good effects ofthe regulations were soon apparent; a large body of people who had beenliving in the lowest state of degradation soon became useful labourersand happy members of society. So grateful were they for the change, thatwhen they were sent round to Penang on the transfer of Bencoolen to theDutch in 1825, as we have stated, they entreated to be placed on thesame footing as they had been placed at Fort Marlborough, and notreduced to the state of the convicts in Prince of Wales Island, who werekept as a Government gang to be employed wherever their services mightbe thought most desirable. Upon December 20th, 1823, Sir Stamford Raffles wrote a further letter toGovernment in regard to these convicts, of which we can only give anextract, which runs thus-- "As the management of convicts ought to be a subject of consideration, I send you a copy of the regulations established for those of this place. The convicts now at Bencoolen amount to 800 or 900, and the number is gradually increasing. They are natives of Bengal and Madras; that is to say, of those presidencies. The arrangement has been brought about gradually, but the system now appears complete, and, as far as we have yet gone, has been attended with the best effects. I have entrusted Mr. John Hull with the superintending of the department, and he feels great pleasure and satisfaction in the general improvement of this class of people. " It is greatly to be regretted that we have been unable to obtain a copyof the regulations to which Sir Stamford Raffles refers, but we have nodoubt they formed the basis of what were hereafter called the "Penangrules. " It was, as we have said, in the year 1825 that the whole of theBencoolen convicts were transferred to Penang, and thence, asopportunities offered later on, to Malacca and Singapore. One point wetrace in regard to those convicts is that, greatly to theirdisappointment, they missed the freedom they had possessed at Bencoolen, for they were sent to work in gangs upon the roads, and in levellingground near the town of Penang. At first they were tried at junglecutting and burning, but had no aptitude for it. This work was thereforeentrusted to Malays, who we all know have a natural bent for cuttingdown trees and underwood, and are possessed of implements wonderfullysuited for the purpose. We may remark here that transportation in those early times had itsterrors both to the European from our shores to Australia, and to thenative of India to these settlements, and more especially to the latter. Though, by a system of "assignment" or "compulsory" servitude tomasters, or by a ticket of leave which made it open to the Europeancriminal to work for whom and where he pleased, expatriation became intime to be less severely felt; still, for a long period it continued toact as a deterrent to others, though to the convict himself it was"greater in idea perhaps than in reality. " To the native of India itmeant even a severer punishment than to the European, for to be sentacross the "kala pani, " or "black water, " in a convict ship or "jetajunaza, " or "living tomb" as they called it, meant, especially to a manof high caste, whether of the right or left hand section, the total lossto him of all that was worth living for. He could never be received inintercourse again with his own people, and so strong are the caste ideasof ceremonial uncleanness that it would be defilement to his friends andrelations even to offer to him sustenance of any kind, and he was inpoint of fact excommunicated and avoided. Happily this dread of castedefilement has now, by railway communication over the country andequalization of classes under our rule, greatly diminished, but it isstill, as Balfour says, "a prominent feature in every-day Hindu life. "Sir Stamford Raffles' views as to the treatment of those transportedconvicts have in the main been recognised by all authorities in theStraits Settlements since his time; and his suggestion as to theprivileges to be granted to men of the first class, though not definedby him as a "ticket of leave, " has been all along kept in view, and wasin regular force in the jail of which we treat. He divided his convictsinto three classes only, but as time went on they were separated intosix classes, and later on in the narrative will be given the reasons forthis enlargement of the number. Dr. Mouat, Inspector General of Jails, Bengal, in a paper read before the Statistical Society some few yearsago, spoke of this jail and the ticket-of-leave system as follows:-- "I visited the Straits Settlements in 1861 when under the rule of my friend, Sir Orfeur Cavenagh, and found in existence a system of industrial training of convicts superior to anything we had at that time on the continent of India. It was said to have been inaugurated by the celebrated Sir Stamford Raffles in 1825, when Singapore was first selected for the transportation of convicts from India, and to have been subsequently organised and successfully worked by General H. Man, Colonel MacPherson, and Major McNair. The ticket-of-leave system was in full and effective operation, and very important public works have been constructed by means of convict labour, chief amongst them St. Andrew's Cathedral, a palace for the Governor, and most of the roads. The ticket-of-leave convicts were said to be a well-conducted, industrious lot of men, who very rarely committed fresh crimes, who all earned an honest livelihood, and were regarded as respectable members of the community amongst whom they dwelt. The public works were creditable examples of prison industry and skill St. Andrew's Cathedral, built under Major McNair from plans prepared by Colonel MacPherson entirely by convict labour, struck me as one of the finest specimens of ecclesiastical architecture which I had seen in the East, and I believe there exists in no other country a more remarkable example of the successful industrial training of convicts. " We are not of course greatly concerned in this treatise with theoriginal crimes committed by those Indian convicts, and for which theyhad received a sentence of transportation. Suffice it to say that theirwarrants showed generally that, in the case of convicts for life, thecrimes were for the most part those of Murder, Thuggee, and Dacoity;while those sentenced to a term of years had been tried and convicted offrauds and forgeries, robbery with violence, and such likemisdemeanours. "Thuggee, " we all know, though it will bear repetitionhere, was in full operation all over India from very early times, but atthe beginning of this century it engaged the serious attention of theIndian Government; and it was found to be an hereditary pursuit ofcertain families who worked in gangs--the Hindus to satisfy theirgoddess Bhawani, and other sects the goddess Devi--and they committed acountless number of murders all over the country. Thugs were a bold, resolute set of men, and as a rule divided themselves into groupsconsisting of a leader, a persuader, a strangler, a scout, and agravedigger, but all the gangs, happily for India, were finally brokenup under Colonel Sleeman about 1860. Some of the men were hanged, andmany transported to our penal settlements in the Straits of Malacca. Dacoity was in some parts of India akin to Thuggee, for the leaderscarried with them in the same way a sacred implement, which was devotedto Bhawani. In the case of the Thugs this was a pickaxe, but with theDacoits it was an axe with a highly-tempered edge. In the early days we talk of, it was the common practice of theauthorities to brand these life convicts with a hot iron to indicate thecharacter of their crime, and this was in some cases done upon theforehead both in the English language and in the vernacular of thedistrict where the crime was committed. This was very properly put astop to shortly after the custom became known. We have seen some ofthose in our jail who, by good conduct, have risen to a ticket of leave, using their utmost endeavours to get rid of the marks, but withouteffect; and finally as a last resource they were obliged to be contentto hide the "stigma" by wearing their turbans, or head-dresses, inconveniently low down over their brows. It is worthy of remark here, in reference to those native criminals whoare in the habit of working in gangs, more especially among the Thugs, how signally they often fail when they attempt to act alone. Amongst ourThugs we had one (a strangler) who, coveting a pair of gold bangles onthe wrist of a fellow-convict employed at the General Hospital, onenight tried the handkerchief upon him, but missed his mark, and got awaywithout being detected. Later on, the convict authorities examined thewarrants of all the men at the hospital, and this gave them a clue, which they followed up successfully and caught the "Thug. " He waspunished, and then confessed, saying, "Bhawani was unkind, and I couldnot do it by myself; I missed my companions, " or "saubutwalé" as hecalled them, literally meaning those "I kept company with. " It will not be inappropriate to mention here the callous and brutalizednature of those gang-robbers, of whom it is recorded that, when one oftheir gang was suddenly arrested, they at once decapitated him, andcarried off the head, lest the whole gang should be betrayed. Chapter II A SLIGHT SKETCH OF PENANG AND THE TREATMENT OF THE CONVICTS THERE Penang, also named "Prince of Wales" Island as a compliment to the thenPrince of Wales, afterwards George IV. This name for the island hasbecome almost obsolete, and the Malay name Pi'nang, for the "ArekaPalm, " which flourishes there, is that by which it is now always known. It is situated at the northern extremity of the Malacca Straits, and wasceded to us by the Rajah of Kedah in 1785, when we gave up, but only fora time, our British settlement on the North Andaman, which we hadacquired in 1789 and abandoned in 1796. Province Wellesley, opposite toPenang, upon the Malay Peninsula, was thirteen years later taken by usfor the purpose of suppressing piracy, and forms part of this Britishsettlement. The island has an area of 107 square miles, and the provinceof 270 square miles. Another dependency of the settlement since 1889 isthe Dindings with the Island of Pangkor, where the treaty of 1874 wasmade by Sir Andrew Clarke, and which eventually led to our protectorateof several of the native states of the Malay Peninsula, and theircomplete federation in 1896. [Illustration: FORT CORNWALLIS, PENANG. _Plate II. _] When Penang was first occupied it was almost uninhabited, and the wholeisland was covered with the densest jungle, but it was not long beforeCaptain Light, who was appointed the first Superintendent of Trade, madea road to the highest point of the island, then called "Bel retiro" butnow Penang Hill. [2] A great part of the island was soon cleared androads made, so that in 1792, seven years after it came into our hands, Captain Light was able to report that the population had increased to10, 000 souls; this increase of population has been steadily going onfrom year to year, until, with its dependencies, Penang, after a littlemore than a century, now numbers no less than 240, 000. [Footnote 2: There is an old legend in the island that Captain Light, in order to encourage the Malays in the work of cutting down the jungle, pointed a cannon in the direction in which he required it to be cleared, then he loaded it with powder, and instead of a shot he put in several dollars, and firing it off he called out to the Malays, "Now you may have all you can find. " It is said that the eager contest which ensued, of one endeavouring to get the money before another, led to a regular scramble, which considerably helped forward the work. ] Since 1825, when the Indian convicts from Bencoolen were added to thosealready on the island, their labour was almost wholly turned to accountin the construction of roads both on the island and in the province; butabout 1850 some intramural work was also undertaken. The gangs in theprovince were at last taught to cut and burn the jungle as well as toconstruct the roads, and the records say at some risk from tigers whichinfested the province in those days, and occasionally carried off astraggler from the gangs at work. They were also bitten in large numbersby the venomous hamadryads which used to abound there, and from thepoison of which some died. About the time our treatise commences, Penang had acquired the monopolyof the trade of the Malayan Peninsula and Sumatra. It also had a largetraffic with China, Siam, Borneo, the Celebes, and other places in theEastern Archipelago; but after the establishment later on of Singaporeit had begun to decline, and the settlement then became second only incommercial importance. But within the last quarter of a century thetrade has considerably revived, owing largely to the planting of tobaccoin Sumatra by European planters, and the annexation of the native statesof the Malayan Peninsula, both of which have constituted Penang thechief shipping centre for their produce. Before we pass on to treat of the Singapore jail, it will be wellbriefly to describe the method pursued in dealing with the Indianconvicts on their first arrival in Penang, as far back as we can traceany definite notice in regard to them. They were confined at the outsetin the then existing prison known as "Chowrusta Lines, " situated on thePenang road; but this proving to be too small to accommodate all theconvicts from India, a larger and more commodious prison was built onthe opposite side of the road. It consisted of an enclosure, surroundedby a high brick wall, subdivided into yards, in each of which wereerected the wards or dormitories. These were simply long rooms open tothe high roof, having windows on either side secured by iron bars. Irongates closed the doorways to each ward, which were locked at night. Agangway seven to eight feet wide ran the whole length of the ward, andsleeping platforms about seven feet wide extended to the full length ofthe ward on either side of this gangway. The hospital ward was similarto the others, except that it was a two-storied building, and cots wereprovided instead of the continuous sleeping platforms. The hospital andwomen's ward were all within the enclosure in a separate yard. Warders'and apothecary's quarters were provided at the main entrance to theprison. Cooking places for the different castes and latrines wereconstructed in each yard; a military guard room, food and clothingstores were also supplied. Little can be said in favour of this prison, as the wards were ill-ventilated, and the sanitary arrangements werevery imperfect. All the prisoners were in a somewhat lax system ofassociation, except those undergoing punishment in cells. Prior to thereceipt of the convicts from Bencoolen, Penang itself, as a penalsettlement, had already been supplied from India with a number oftransported criminals of all tribes and castes, who were working ingangs under free warders; but from vacancies and dismissals, and theconsequent inability to supply the place of these warders, where freelabour of the kind required was not obtainable, an attempt was then madeto enlist the services of well-behaved convicts to oversee theirfellow-prisoners. But it does not appear to have at all succeeded atthat time, and we have it on record that the Governor in Council atPenang, in the year 1827, deemed it necessary to revise the regulationsunder which these Indian convicts were controlled; and accordingly welearn that a committee was appointed to assemble at Penang in November, 1827, when a code of revised rules was drawn up, and the followingcomment was made by the committee as to the employment of convicts aswarders: "With regard to the present system of employing convicts astindals and sirdars, the committee think it very objectionable, as it isimpossible that men so intimately connected with those over whom theyare placed can exercise that authority and control which is so essentialin the management of such a body of men as the convicts. The duties atpresent performed by these servants are provided for in the proposedincrease to the establishment. " These rules, subsequently known as the "Penang Rules, " received thesanction of the Governor in Council, and were sent for guidance to theResident Councillor at Singapore, to which settlement some few convictshad already been sent. This remark of the Penang committee, which in allfairness we have quoted, was doubtless quite true at the time when itwas penned, and when the system of employing prisoners as warders was inits infancy, and, moreover, when the whole prison discipline wasacknowledged to be in more or less an indifferent state; but, as willhereafter be shown, it did not hold good when the system was wellestablished, and the choice of warders was made from those classes bestsuited for the control of their fellow-prisoners, especially in theoutstations, or "commands" as they were called, where gangs of convictswere placed under their control in the construction and repairs of roadsor in stone-quarrying. In these early days, no organised system of industrial employmentappears to have been carried on in this Penang jail, and no intramuralworkshops of any kind were provided, the convicts being employed almostexclusively on extramural works, such as opening up roads on the PenangHill and throughout the island, and in Province Wellesley; also inbrick-making, felling timber, burning lime, and reclaiming mangroveswamps. The ground on which some portion of the present town is builtwas filled up by convict labour. Much later on, however, in the Fifties, rattan work was introduced into the prison, and easy chairs, loungingchairs, baskets, and other articles of a very substantial quality weremanufactured and sold to the public at a higher price than that forwhich the same articles could be purchased in the town, but they werefar superior both in the quality of rattan and in their make. About theyear 1860, blacksmiths' and carpenters' shops were established in theprison, and on the different "commands" in the country districts. The ordinary discipline of the jail was carried out in accordance withthe "Penang Rules" referred to, and any breach of these rules waspunished according to the nature of the offence, at the discretion ofthe Superintendent. There was then no formal investigation or inquiryinto convict complaints or misdemeanours, and no records of them werekept with any show of regularity. It was only after the appointment ofthe late General Man as Resident Councillor of Penang, Captain Hilliardbeing Superintendent, that a manifest improvement in the management andcontrol of the convicts took place, and especially in their industrialtraining. He brought with him the system in force in Singapore, and thenew rules and regulations formed with the sanction of the Governor, thenColonel Butterworth, and which were an improvement on the old Penangrules, but were only at this time being tentatively carried out inPenang. By these rules the entire abolition of free warders wasapproved, and petty officers raised from amongst the convicts themselvesfully established, though as the Governor himself said in his letter tothe Resident Councillor of Singapore in August, 1854, "I had drawn upthese rules as long ago as 1845 in the face of much opposition. " The late General Man held the appointment at Penang from 1860 until1867, when the Straits Settlements were transferred to the Crown, andfrom Penang he went to the Andaman Islands to introduce there the systemof convict management in force in the Straits Settlements;[3] and withthe view to uniformity of practice, the Government of India hadpreviously deputed Major, now General, Forlong to prepare a code ofrules based on those in force in the Singapore jail. [Footnote 3: Now under the able management of Col. R. C. Temple, C. I. E. ] When the transfer was fully effected, the new office of Comptroller ofIndian Convicts was created, and the whole of those Indian convicts inthe three settlements were placed under his charge. The "ButterworthRules" remained in force, with certain alterations and improvements, until the disestablishment of the whole department in 1873. As many of the convicts were continued to be employed at Penang andProvince Wellesley on roads and works at a distance from the main jail, it was necessary to provide accommodation for them in convict lines, or"commands, " as we have said, pronounced "kumman" by the convicts. [4] Itwill be interesting to give some particulars about them: They consistedof a stockaded fence, constructed of rough poles of wood from four tosix inches in diameter, and from ten to twelve feet long, setperpendicularly in a trench about two feet deep, and placed closetogether, being secured longitudinally by adze-dressed poles nailedsecurely on the outside and along the top of them. The stockade enclosedan area sufficient for the erection of the dormitory, cooking place, andsheds for the bullocks employed in carts to convey road material, andfor protection also against the possible attacks of wild animals. Thewalls of the dormitory were constructed in what is well known as "wattleand daub. " They were made with stout stakes driven firmly into theground at about one foot apart, twigs of trees were then interwoven, andthe whole then thickly plastered with a mixture of clay and cowdung, andwhen this had become thoroughly dry it was coated with whitewash. Thisformed both a substantial, and at the same time a sanitary walling, which was frequently treated with a further coating of limewash madethin. The dormitories were ten feet high, with a continuous open gratingof wooden bars at the top, under the eaves of the roof, for the purposeof complete ventilation. The sleeping platforms were raised three feetoff the ground floor, which was covered with the same composition asthat of the walls, and the building was roofed with thatch. In thecentre of the dormitory an earthenware brazier of burning charcoal wasalways maintained day and night, and occasionally crude fragrant gumBenjamin was thrown upon it. The natives believe that an aromaticperfume exhaled by fire keeps off all noxious effluvia; and we certainlyfound that they were in better health from the use of this incense, andfrom the fresh plastering of the floor every morning with cowdungdiluted with water, which is a common practice in most of the nativehuts in India. This was regularly kept up by two convicts of the invalidclass, who also acted as caretakers. The entrance to the enclosure wassecured by a stout gate, which, after the roll was called, was lockedevery night at nine o'clock. The number of convicts stationed on one"command" averaged about thirty, and they were under the charge of aresponsible convict warder of the grade of a tindal, with a peon and twoorderlies and a native "moonshi, " or timekeeper, to keep account of workdone, and to forward reports to the main jail. By a system of surprisevisits both day and night occasionally, we rarely found that anyirregularities occurred. [Footnote 4: Simpson, in his _Side Lights on Siberia_, uses "command" as denoting a jail outside of the prison walls. ] It has not been already mentioned that the local jails, or houses ofcorrection, though according to law they were kept distinct from theconvict jails at the several settlements, nevertheless were in theirsuperintendence placed under the Superintendent of Convicts and convictpetty officers. A good proportion of these local prisoners were employedupon extramural works, under the guard of these convict petty officers, who, being natives of India, had nothing in common with the Chinese andMalays who formed the bulk of these prisoners, and they kept them wellunder control, and allowed but few escapes, and, moreover, they werenever found open to the taking of bribes from the prisoners' relationsand friends, who now and again would attempt to offer them forbiddenarticles. At Penang there were a considerable number of these Indian convicts uponticket of leave, who gained their livelihood in a variety of ways. Someof them were the first to discover the palm known by the Malays as "Plastikoos, " and by botanists as the "Licuala acutifida, " a small palm, ordinarily not higher than from five to six feet. From this palm, whichgrew mostly upon the Penang Hill, were constructed walking-sticks called"Penang lawyers, " and the process of preparing them was very simple: theepidermis, or exterior coating, was scraped off with glass, and then thestick was straightened with fire, as is done by the Malays in preparingthe Malacca canes. Several of these Penang lawyers were sold by theconvicts on the spot, and many more were exported to Europe andAmerica. [Illustration: BOUNDARIES OF MALACCA, PORTUGUESE PERIOD (From Godinho de Eredia's Work). _Plate III. _] Chapter III OLD MALACCA AND THE FIRST INTRODUCTION OF CONVICTS THERE Authorities differ very considerably as to the origin of the name ofthis place. Some attribute it to the Malay name for a shrub whichlargely abounded near the shore, a sort of "Phyllanthus emblica" of thespurge order; others, again, ascribe it to a plant called the "JumbosaMalaccensis, " or "Malay apple tree" of the myrtle bloom order; others, again, say that the Javanese were the first to colonize the place aboutthe year 1160 of our time, and that they gave it the name "Malaka, "which in that language means "an exile, " in memory of one "Paramisura"who came there as a fugitive from the kingdom of Palembang. In the original manuscript of Godinho de Eredia, of date 1613, reproduced by Janssen in 1882, he says that "Paramisura, " the first kingof the Malays, settled on the coast near to the Bukit China River, whichis close to the present town, and called it "Malaka, " after the fruit ofa tree which grew there. (See sketch from that old work, Plate IV. )Anyway, like all Malay history, it is full of obscurity, and it reallydoes not concern us very much just now as to what it is really derivedfrom, though it would be no doubt interesting to Malay scholars topursue the inquiry. We know, however, on the best authority, that it was the firstsettlement formed by a European power in those seas. The Portuguese, intheir palmy days under Albuquerque, took it from a Malay Sultan, namedMahomed Shah, in 1511. They kept quiet possession of it for 134 years, when it fell into the hands of the Dutch, who held it for seventy-fouryears; then the British took possession in 1795, restored it to theDutch in 1818, who gave it back in 1824, and we have held it ever since. In size it is forty-two miles long and from eight to twenty-five milesbroad, and contains 659 square miles. In the old Portuguese days it was a very important place of trade, somuch so that De Barros, their famous historian, wrote of it that, "thenative town was a good league in length along the shore, and that therewere many merchant vessels there from Calicut, Aden, Mecca, Java, andPegu, and other places. " This splendid trade, however, began to declinein the time of the Dutch, and shortly after we had opened Penang in 1785it had almost entirely vanished. [Illustration: OLD MALACCA (From Godinho de Eredia's Work). _Plate IV. _] [Illustration: ALBUQUERQUE (From Godinho de Eredia's Work). _Plate V. _] The Portuguese must have attached great value to this their firstsettlement in what was then known as the "Golden Chersonese, " for theyspent vast sums of money in fortifying it, and enclosed a considerableenceinte by a wall of great height and thickness, and crowned the smallhill of St. Paul's within by the erection of a fine cathedral dedicatedto our Lady Del-Monte, with a monastery annexed to it. Thesefortifications were afterwards razed to the ground, and some of the oldfoundations may still be seen; but we left the buildings standing andthe greater part of the cathedral to go to ruins. Some of the tombstonesin the old nave bear the date 1515, and there is a tomb to the twoBishops of Japan, but there is nothing to indicate that the saintly St. Francis Xavier laboured here beyond a small tablet; but the memory ofhis deeds is yet fresh amongst the traditions of the Portuguesedescendants still resident there. Seen from the sea in these days, Malacca looks an antiquated old place, with all the signs of desertion about it. The old ruins on the hill formthe most prominent feature in the landscape, and the once busy river(see Plate VI. ) is now almost closed even to boat traffic by the siltwhich has been brought down from the interior. It is difficult indeed torealize that this strange, dim old place was once the centre of athriving trade from so many distant countries, though it still carrieson its cultivation of rice and other grain, and this is yearly beingmore developed. As far as we can gather, the first batch of convicts were sent to thisplace from Penang shortly after we took possession, and that they wereemployed in filling up the moat to suit it and the glacis for a paradeground. These convicts were confined first of all in the town jail, which was situated on the steep or eastern side of St. Paul's Hill, andwas in point of fact the old Portuguese soldiers' barrack, and wasconstructed on a terrace excavated from the hillside; and, together witha hospital, warders' quarters, store rooms and other necessarybuildings, was surrounded by a high wall built from the stone from theold fort ramparts. The few local prisoners were put into the old Dutchprison, and both these prisoners and the convicts were placed under thecharge of half-blood Portuguese warders. For some years few convictswere sent into the interior, their labour being required for the publicworks in and near the town; but about the year 1840, as fresh arrivalscame from Penang, which is about 250 miles north of it, gangs were madeup to keep in repair about 100 miles of the public roads that were leftto us, and to open up new communications near the frontier; so that wenow have nearly 300 miles to keep in order. They were located intemporary huts surrounded by a palisading, and warders were raised fromamongst the best behaved to be responsible for their work and generalsupervision. This practice was continued with satisfactory results, andgradually was introduced into the town jail, and the half-bredPortuguese warders were dismissed. [Illustration: MALACCA RIVER IN 1870. (From Godinho de Eredia's Work). _Plate VI. _] [Illustration: ST. FRANCIS XAVIER (From Godinho de Eredia's Work). _Plate VII. _] Prior to the appointment to Malacca of Captain Man as ResidentCouncillor, but little had been done in the way of training the convictsin industrial occupation, but he established a few workshops and startedthem in various trades. It was not, however, until 1860 that anythingapproaching to really skilled labour could be got out of them. They werethen supplied with good tools and an instructor, also a convict, wassent down from Singapore. After this, carts for the roads, iron and woodwork for bridges, roofing timbers for public works, and other necessaryrequirements for the erection of minor works were satisfactorilyaccomplished. For some classes of work the convicts were superior to theChinese workmen in the town, especially in metal turning and fitting. One Cingalese convict became so expert at this trade that upon hisrelease from confinement he established himself in Ceylon, and has beendoing a very profitable business, and occupies now a respectableposition in life. As far as can be gathered from the records, the convicts were, as arule, well behaved, though in the early Sixties, owing to theirmaltreatment by an overseer who had the supervision of a gang forclearing the jungle and making roads upon Cape Rachado for the erectionof a lighthouse, an _emeute_ took place, and some life was lost, andmany escaped inland, but were subsequently returned by the native Malaychiefs. Some of the Indian convicts here on ticket of leave were expertshikarries, and frequently with their trained dogs would hunt the deerand wild boar, and dispose of the flesh to Chinese in the town at someprofit to themselves. In 1873, when the convict establishments in the Straits Settlements werefinally broken up, those convicts still wanting time to complete theirsentences were transferred to Singapore for transmission to theAndamans, those upon ticket of leave being permitted to merge into thepopulation. [Illustration: TOWN AND ENVIRONS OF SINGAPORE IN 1878. _Plate VIII. _] Chapter IV A RUNNING HISTORY OF SINGAPORE: ITS JAIL SYSTEM AND ADMINISTRATION The origin of the name of this island it is difficult to trace, but thegenerally accepted derivation is from the Sanscrit words, "Singh, " alion, and "Pura, " a city or town; and if so, it would not have beengiven by the Malays, but more probably by the Indians, who, according tonative history, came over with one, Rajah Suran, and conquered Johoreand this island in about the year A. D. 1160. "Singh" is a title adoptedby the Hindus, and by several military castes of Northern India, and theword "Singhpur" is often used by them to mean the grand entrance gate toa palace. If, on the other hand, we assume that the Malays conferred the name tothe island, they would in all probability have given it from their word"Singgah, " which means "a place to stop at, " or "to bait by the way, "and as the embouchure of the Singapore river formed a commodious andsheltered retreat for their rowing and sailing prahus, this view is notinappropriate, the more especially as the affix "pura, " meaning a city, had been known to them from the earliest times, and of which we have oneinstance at least from their original home of Sumatra, in the naming oftheir kingdom of Indrapura, which was, as Marsden says, "for a longtime, from 1400 A. D. , the seat of a monarchy of some consideration andextent. " The island is about twenty-seven miles long by fourteen broad, andcontains an area of 206 square miles, and therefore is somewhat largerthan the Isle of Wight. It is separated from the mainland of Johore bywhat is known as "The Old Straits, " from its having been the onlychannel used in the early days by vessels bound eastward. The island wasfirst settled upon, according to Balfour, "in A. D. 1160, by one Sri SuraBawana, " and from an inscription on a sandstone rock at the mouth of theSingapore River, now unfortunately destroyed, it would appear that RajahSuran, of Amdan Nagara, after conquering the state of Johore withcertain natives of India (Klings), proceeded in 1201 to a country thencalled "Tamask, " and afterwards returned to "Kling, " leaving the stoneinscription in memory of his visit and victory. To have conqueredJohore, the Rajah's vessels must have sailed by the Old Straits; but wehave no record as to where "Tamask" was situated, and it is not givenin the oldest Atlases we have been able to consult, viz. By D'Anvilleand others, though it may be in the charts of the 14th and 15thcenturies. It seems more probable that the expedition set out from Javaor Sumatra, to which places Hindus had, as we know, in very remote timesproceeded from India, as the old ruins they have left there of theirtemples, supposed to be of the 7th century, plainly prove. Sir Stamford Raffles, as we have already stated when treating ofBencoolen, took up the appointment of Lieutenant-Governor of thatsettlement on the 22nd March, 1818, and he had not been there longbefore he recognized the fact that British interests needed a tradingcentre somewhere in the Straits of Malacca. It was, he said, "not thatany extension of territory was necessary, but the aim of Governmentshould be to acquire somewhere in the Straits a commercial station witha military guard, and that, when once formed, it was his belief that itwould soon maintain a successful rivalry with a neighbouring Power, whowould be obliged either to adopt a liberal system of free trade, or seethe trade of these seas collected under the British flag. " It is well known how the port of Rhio, on the west coast of the islandof Bintang, which is separated from the island of Battam by the RhioStrait, was first thought of; but we were too late in occupying it. Thenthe Carrimon Islands were suggested by the Resident Councillor ofMalacca, at that time Major Farquhar; but the harbour was too exposed tothe prevailing monsoon. Subsequently Tanjong Jatti, on the island ofBengkalis, was deemed to be a suitable site, but this had its objectionas to situation; and after coasting about these seas for some littletime, Sir Stamford Raffles finally fixed upon the island of Singaporefor an entrepot for trade, and the wisdom and sagacity displayed by himin this selection has been abundantly proved. Sir Stamford Raffles concluded the treaty with the native chiefs for thecession of the island to Great Britain, and the British flag was plantedon the island on the same day that the treaty was signed, viz. , the 19thFebruary, 1819, but it has since been found to have been actually signedon the 6th of that month. Our new possession, some 600 miles from Batavia, then contained in roundnumbers about 120 Malays and 30 Chinese. Some of these lived wholly intheir boats at the mouth of the river, and the remainder in huts atTeloh Blangah, on the south side of the island. In the course of a yearthe population had risen to 5, 000, and in little more than five years to19, 000 or 20, 000 of all nations actively engaged in commerce, "offeringto each and all a handsome livelihood and abundant profit. " When thecensus was taken in 1881 the population had risen to 139, 208, and in1891 there was an increase of 45, 346, making a total of 184, 554, representing nearly every nationality and tribe in the IndianArchipelago, China, and India, and about 1, 500 Europeans. In the year 1822, the first settlers to dwell on the island were tradersin the Archipelago, and they lived in raft houses, so called, or moreprobably in huts, erected on poles in the Malay style, and these werelocated on the site of the present "Commercial Square, " which was thenlittle more than a mud flat covered by the sea at high water. One of thefirst steps taken by the Government was to fill up this low-lying seamarsh, which was executed by free labour, but was subsequently largelyassisted by some local prisoners who were confined in a temporary jailnear by, on the site where the present Court-house now stands. The firstmagistrates to be appointed in the settlement, and who tried andsentenced these prisoners, were men whose names will ever be preservedunforgotten by the colony, and we make no excuse in giving them in fullas obtained from _The Anecdotal History_, viz. , Messrs. A. L. Johnstone, D. A. Maxwell, D. F. Napier, A. F. Morgan, John Purvis, AlexanderGuthrie, E. Mackenzie, W. Montgomery, Charles Scott, John Morgan, C. R. Read, and Andrew Hay. Two magistrates sat in court with the ResidentCouncillor, to decide cases both civil and criminal, and juries wereformed of five Europeans, or four Europeans and three leading natives. This court sat once a week, but a court of two magistrates sat twice aweek to try cases, their office being open daily to hear complaints. The insecurity of the temporary prison mentioned above, and the defectsin its control, led to changes in its structure and general management. The Resident, then Mr. J. Crawford, expended $900 towards theconstruction of a more substantial building for the local prisoners, thetransmarine convicts from Bencoolen and India having not yet arrived inthe settlement. In April, 1823, as there was a great difficulty inobtaining free labour, the local prisoners were ordered to work upon thepublic roads. When finally leaving the settlement, Sir Stamford Raffles entered into anew agreement with the Sultan and Tummongong of Johore, by which thewhole of the island of Singapore and the adjacent islands were to beconsidered as entirely British territory. He considered this freshagreement necessary on account of some peculiar ideas that were held atthe time by certain dissentients. On his final departure from Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles received anaddress from the European and native merchants of Singapore, from whichwe quote the following significant extract: "To your unwearied zeal, your vigilance, and your comprehensive views, we owe at once the foundation and maintenance of a settlement, unparalleled for the liberality of the principles on which it has been established--principles, the operation of which has converted in a period short beyond all example a haunt of pirates into the abode of enterprise, security, and opulence. " Sir Stamford replied with his characteristic modesty in a letter datedSingapore, June 9th, 1823. The letter is too long to quote _inextenso_, but we give the following extracts from it. Afteracknowledging the receipt of their address, and remarking upon theimpossibility of his being indifferent to any of the interests, especially the commercial interests, of Singapore, under the peculiarcircumstances of his connection with the establishment of thesettlement, he says, "It has happily been consistent with the policy ofGreat Britain, and accordant with the principles of the East IndiaCompany, that Singapore should be established as a 'free port, ' and thatSingapore will long, and always remain a free port, and that no taxes ontrade or industry will be established to check its future rise andprosperity, I can have no doubt. " "I am justified in saying thus much onthe authority of the Supreme Government of India, and on the authorityof those who are most likely to have weight in the councils of ournation at home. " Referring to difficulties which had to be encountered on theestablishment of the freedom of the port, he says, "In the commandingstation in which my public duty has placed me, I have had an opportunityof, in a great measure, investigating and determining the merits of thecase, and the result renders it a duty on my part, and which I performwith much satisfaction, to express my most unqualified approbation ofthe honourable principles which actuated the merchants of Singapore onthat occasion. " We give the above extracts to show the rapid advance that had been madein the first five years of the settlement's existence, owing mainly tothe sagacity, forethought, and wisdom of its eminent founder, and wehave added the population up to this period to show its steady rise andprogress. It was, however, in January, 1824, that the first regular census wastaken. The population then consisted of 74 Europeans, 16 Armenians, 15Arabs, 4, 580 Malays, 3, 317 Chinese, 756 natives of India, and 1, 925Bugis, making a total of 10, 683. It was in this year that Singapore wasfirst mentioned in the House of Commons, in a remark made by Mr. Canning, who had been nominated Governor-General of India in 1822, butdid not go out to that country, that "Singapore in six years wouldproduce spices sufficient for the consumption of Great Britain and hercolonies"--a prophecy not yet fulfilled. In May of the same year the Resident made a voyage round the island inthe ship _Malabar_, 380 tons burden, to view the boundary of the islandand to take formal possession; and it was while on this voyage that theBritish flag was planted on the island of "Pulo Obin, " an island whichhas since largely supplied the town of Singapore with granite for makingroads and also for building purposes. The Government quarries situatedupon it were subsequently worked almost entirely by transmarineconvicts, of which more will be said hereafter. [Illustration: ORIGINAL HUTS FOR CONVICTS, SINGAPORE (From _Life of Sir Stamford Raffles_). _Plate IX. _] On the 18th of April, 1825, the first batch of convicts transportedfrom India to Bencoolen were transferred from there to Singapore. Theyarrived in the brig _Horatio_, and consisted of 80 convicts transportedfrom Madras, of whom 73 males and 1 female were for life, and 6 maleconvicts on short sentences. On the 25th of the same month another batchwas received, also convicts from Bencoolen. These consisted of 122convicts transported from Bengal, of whom 88 males and 1 female were forlife, and 33 for short terms. When these Indian convicts were landed atSingapore they were placed at first in an open shed, or godown (from theMalay word "godong, " a shed), which stood on the site where the presentpublic offices stand, with only four free petty officers, or "peons, "natives of Chittagong in the Bengal presidency, in charge of them. Subsequently temporary buildings, to contain 1, 200 to 2, 000 convicts, were erected near the Hindu temple, then situated near the Brass BasaCanal, and at a considerable cost it is given as £13, 199 (see PlateIX. ). They were all located in these sheds, and there was little or noprison control over them; only, occasionally, an officer of the policecame and called the roll in order to report to Government that all werepresent. These convicts were afterwards detailed to the work of fillingup the mud flat before referred to as the site of the present"Commercial Square. " For this purpose they carried the soil from near theHindu temple and from Pearls Hill. Mr. Bonham, the Resident, findingthat the convicts worked willingly, and were well behaved, dischargedthe free "peons, " or warders, and selected five Madrasees and fiveBengalees from their number to supervise their fellow-convicts. Thiswas, as far as we gather, the first trial of the system of convictwarders at Singapore, possibly the first venture of the kind made in anypenal establishment. As convicts continued to arrive from India, many ofthose from Bencoolen were constituted warders over their fellows, in theproportion of one warder to every twenty convicts. Each warder wasgranted a monthly wage of $3. 00 in addition to his rations and clothing, with the usual blanket given to each convict once a year. In addition tohis ordinary rations, clothing, and annual blanket, each convictreceived a monthly allowance of 50 cents (say 2s. ) a month, topurchase condiments and salt. A European overseer was placed inimmediate charge of the convicts, and a Superintendent over the wholeconvict establishment, this responsible duty first falling uponLieutenant Chester, of the Bengal Native Infantry. The convicts from Bencoolen were not sent over to the Straits of Malaccain chains, but those received from India in the earliest times weremanacled with light leg fetters, in which they had to work for aprobationary period of three months. As, however, they were granted, equally with the others, the privilege of going about the town to maketheir purchases, it is said they ceased to consider their fetters amark of degradation, being so completely overwhelmed with the thought ofbanishment from their country and kindred; and to many men of caste itmust be remembered that transportation alone was a severe punishment. In the year 1826 there was a change of government in the settlements. Hitherto the settlements of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore had not beenincorporated under one government. In this year it was decided by theSupreme Government to do so, and the seat of government was fixed atPenang, that being our oldest settlement in these seas. On this changetaking place, many more of the Indian convicts from Penang were sentdown to Singapore, the ship _Esperanza_ bringing down a further batch of23 Bengal life convicts (males), and 26 Madras convicts (males), and 1female; 31 Bombay (males), and 2 female convicts. From the accounts given in the newspapers of that day, the convicts wereat this time treated with great indulgence if of proved good behaviour, being permitted, after their work was over, to engage themselves asservants to the residents, who, in the scarcity of labour at that time, and the fitness of the convicts for such service, were content to givethem a very liberal wage. In the early days of penal colonies this hasnot infrequently occurred, and some of these old convicts have beenknown to amass considerable sums of money, and, indeed, to becomepossessed of landed property in the town. The Government, however, under Major Campbell, who succeeded Lieutenant Chester, took care toexact from them a large amount of useful work in the filling up ofswampy ground near the town, and laying out plots of land for buildingpurposes. They also blasted the rocks at the mouth of the Singaporeriver, on the site of which was afterwards constructed a fort, namedafter the first Resident, Mr. Fullerton, and much of the rock was alsoused in the construction of the sea and river walls adjoining. Theirservices were also turned to account on any occasion when the presenceof a body of men under discipline was required, such as the suppressionof fires. An instance is given in the journal already quoted of aserious outbreak of fire in Market Street, in the year 1830, whichthreatened to consume the houses in several streets adjoining. Therewere no fire engines in those days, and the only supply of water wascarried in buckets by the convicts, which materially helped to subdueit. The houses in the square at the back of Market Street were notburnt; they, and also the houses on the side of Market Street next thesquare, were partly built of brick, but those on the opposite side werewholly of wood, and were quickly destroyed. The middle of the square wascovered with goods carried from the burning houses. Occasionally, even in those days, convicts were employed as orderliesand servants to public officers, and when Dr. Oxley's house wasattacked by burglars in 1821, his Indian convict servant, though woundedby a "kris, " succeeded in capturing the burglar, who turned out to be aMalay pirate from Bencoolen. Robbery on land was not common amongstMalays in those days, but piracy was one of their pastimes, and theirromances always glorify their ancestors in this pursuit. The rules at that time in force amongst the convicts were what wereknown as the "Penang Rules, " already mentioned, and published in 1827;but there were also a few scattered rules known as the "BencoolenRules, " probably some of those drawn up by Sir Stamford Raffles, andreferred to in his letter of the 20th September, 1823, and incorporatedwith the former. In 1832 an alteration in the seat of government took place. Penang hadhitherto been the seat of government, but in this year it wastransferred to Singapore, which had by this time become the mostimportant of the three Settlements. When later on, in the year 1833, Mr. G. D. Coleman was placed in chargeof the convicts as "Surveyor and Executive Officer of Government, " agreat improvement was set on foot in the regular and systematicemployment of these convicts. He, by their means, reclaimed large plotsof land as intakes from the sea and river marshes, and largely extendedthe town lots, so that Captain Begbie, who in that year wrote a bookupon the Straits Settlements, stated that "200 of these convicts, ineight months, at a small money outlay of $500 for covered drains, hadreclaimed 28 acres of marsh, and intersected it with roads. This landwas shortly afterwards sold at a handsome price, and was very quicklycovered with good, substantial upper-story houses, which were readilylet. " Under Mr. Coleman the public roads on the sea front were marked out andconstructed, and also the main road from the town to Campong Glam, nowknown as North and South Bridge Roads. He surveyed and marked out thefirst country road towards Bukit Timah, and he afterwards laid out theSerangoon, the New Harbour, Budoo, and Thompson's Roads, and employedIndian convicts principally in their construction. When the convictscould not be marched out to and from their daily work to the prison, owing to the long distance they had to traverse, Mr. Coleman constructedfor them temporary buildings, surrounded by a fence, similar to thosealready described when treating of Province Wellesley and Malacca. Inthese "commands" they were located until the work on which they wereemployed was completed; and in many cases these "commands, " as they werealways called, became permanent stations for the convicts employed inmaintaining the roads. At first their rations were sent out to them fromtown once a month, but subsequently it was found desirable for them toattend the general muster at the main prison on the first of everymonth, and to receive their rations then, and to be inspected at thesame time by the Superintendent. The records of the jail at this time, and until the year 1844, have notbeen kept, as we have said, with any precision, and, indeed, most ofthem are missing; but the excellent work performed by Mr. Coleman (inthe execution of which he, as far as possible, employed convict labour)is, fortunately, to be seen in the map of the town and its environssurveyed by him in 1836, and lithographed in Calcutta the same year, acopy of which is given in Moor's _Notices of the Indian Archipelago_. Mr. Coleman was no mean architect. It was he who designed the firstchurch for Singapore. It was erected on the site where the presentcathedral stands. It was completed in 1837, and consecrated inSeptember, 1838, but was opened for service on the 18th June, 1837, bythe first chaplain appointed from Bengal, the Rev. Edmund White. Indianconvicts were employed in the erection of this church, chiefly aslabourers, as they were also at the public buildings which were erectedabout this time, notably the first extension of the Raffles Institutionand its museum. To Mr. Coleman, however, the colony is chiefly indebted for the manyexcellent roads on the island, and the carrying out of the dispositionof town allotments, projected in the first instance by Sir StamfordRaffles himself, in his instructions to the Committee appointed for thepurpose shortly after the settlement was founded. Mr. G. D. Coleman died on the 27th March, 1885, and the newspapers ofthe day, in regretting his death, brought about by hard work andexposure in the public service, spoke in the highest terms of hisability as an architect and surveyor, and Superintendent of Convicts. Chapter V SINGAPORE (_Continued_) There were then about 1, 100 or 1, 200 Indian convicts in Singapore, divided into six classes, and employed in various ways as alreadynarrated, but the following extract from _The Anecdotal History_ isworth quoting verbatim: "Singapore, Malacca, Penang, and Maulmein were the Sydneys of India. There are upon an average about 1, 100 to 1, 200 native convicts from India constantly at Singapore. These are employed making roads and digging canals; and, undoubtedly, without them the town, as far as locomotion is concerned, would have been now but a sorry residence. They are secured within high walls, and although a few now and then escape, they meet with such rough treatment from the Malays on the Peninsula, that they find it commonly the most prudent course to return, or allow themselves to be brought back. The native of India accommodates himself more easily to banishment than a European does, because his ideas lead to predestination, and his habits are simple. In former days, when convict discipline was not so well understood as it is now, the convicts transported from India used to traffic and amass money; banishment was in some cases, perhaps, sought for, and crimes were, it is feared, sometimes committed by natives to obtain it; but the felon must now expect to be kept in his place and hard at work. Still, the convict whose period is short, contrives to save something out of his allowance, and on the expiration of his term he generally sets up as a keeper of cattle, or a letter-out of carriages and horses; and undoubtedly some of these men are as well, if not better behaved than many of their native neighbours of higher pretensions. There are regulations by which the convict is encouraged by certain rewards, or remission short of emancipation, to orderly conduct. " When Mr. Coleman resigned, the duties of Superintendent were taken up byCaptain Stevenson of the 12th Madras Native Infantry, who carried outthe system then in force, and somewhat added to the strength of theconvict warders; for we find in his annual report for 1845 the followingremarks: "Convict peons are selected from the second class for generalgood conduct and intelligence, and they continue to receive $3 each permensem, in addition to provisions and clothing. Free peons were, I hear, formerly tried, but found not to be so well suited for the peculiarduties required of them; besides, the prospect of gaining a belt--amark of authority--is a strong inducement to good conduct on the part ofthe convict, and conduces much towards lightening, in the well disposed, the feeling of hopelessness that ever accompanies a sense ofimprisonment and slavery for life. " At this time (1840 to 1845), Singapore was more than ever beforeinfested with tigers--it is supposed that they swam across the narrowpart of the Old Straits, from Johore to Kranji. The number of natives, principally Chinese, employed on gambier and pepper farms, that werecarried off or destroyed by them annually was considerable, and it wassaid at the time that not a day passed without one man being killed bywild animals. Whether it was actually so or not, there are no policestatistics to prove, but as many as five in eight days were reported atthat time, and in later years, about 1860, as many as 200 deaths werenotified to the police in one year, and probably a great number neverwere brought to notice, because the difficulty of obtaining coolies towork in the thick jungle, as it then was, was a great inducement to the"Towkays, " or Head Chinese, to keep the number of deaths as much aspossible from being known. In those days a reward of one hundred dollarswas offered by Government for every tiger brought to the police station, whether alive or dead; and this sum, owing to their continued ravages, was subsequently increased to one hundred and fifty dollars. One seizure of a man-eater is worth recording here; it is taken from_The Singapore Free Press_ of the year 1840, and runs as follows:-- "The news of the capture and death of a tiger last Saturday night on a Chinaman's plantation, close to that of Mr. Balustier, the American Consul, gave general satisfaction, being the first of these destructive animals which the Chinese had succeeded in catching alive. A pit was dug where his track had been observed, the mouth of which was covered lightly over, and two or three dogs tied as bait. The ruse luckily took effect, and, when advancing to his imagined prey, he was himself precipitated into the pit head foremost, where he was very soon despatched by the natives, who pounded him to death with stones. He was a large animal for the Malay type, measuring 9 ft. 3 in. From the nose to the tip of the tail, which was 35 inches long, the circumference round the forearm being 21 inches. The captors have claimed and obtained from the local authorities the promised reward of one hundred dollars, besides having sold the flesh of the animal itself to the Chinese, Klings, and others for six fanams a catty (a fanam is about three halfpence), by which they realized about seventy dollars more. " It is singular how all natives believe that by eating the flesh of thetiger they absorb the essence or distinctive features of the animal. Balfour says that "the clavicle or collar-bone of the tiger isconsidered of great virtue by many natives of India. The whiskers aresupposed by some to endow their possessor with unlimited power over theopposite sex. " Tiger bones are often sold in China to form an ingredientin certain invigorating jellies, made of hartshorn, and the plastron ofthe terrapin or tortoise. Burmese and Malays eat the flesh of the tiger, because they believe that by eating it they acquire the courage andsagacity of the animal. Tigers' claws are used as charms, and the mostsolemn oath of one of the aboriginal tribes of India, the "Santals, " issworn when touching a tiger's skin; handsome brooches and earrings arealso made from tigers' claws mounted in gold. In 1854 no less than sixpersons were killed within the space of a few days not far from thetown, and in April of that year the Government, alarmed for the safetyof the people, sanctioned a considerable expenditure for theconstruction of tiger pits over many parts of the island. In August ofthe same year the following article appeared in _The Singapore FreePress_:-- "The attention of His Honour the Governor having been directed to the continued deplorable ravages committed by tigers on the island, he has expressed himself ready to adopt any measures which may tend to remove the evil. It has been suggested that persons are to be found in the vicinity of Calcutta trained for the purpose of destroying tigers; and His Honour has written to the Bengal Government requesting that half a dozen of these 'shikarries' should be sent to the Straits for a limited period, to be employed in the destruction of these animals. The Governor has also directed that in the meantime, should it be deemed expedient, a certain number of volunteers from convicts of the third class should be permitted to beat the jungle once every month with tom-toms (native drums), horns, etc. , which, if they do not lead to the destruction of the tigers, may frighten them away from the island, to which they come from the neighbouring state of Johore. " Later, in 1859, finding that the number of tigers on the island, and thenumber of people killed by them, were still increasing, the Governor, General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh, discussed the matter with the thenSuperintendent of Convicts (Major McNair), who informed him that he hadgood shikarries amongst the Indian convicts, and it was arranged toorganize parties of convicts for their destruction. Three parties, ofthree men in each party, were selected, and armed with the oldmuzzle-loading muskets and ball ammunition. One party was sent to theBukit Timah or Central district, another to the Serangoon and Changi orEastern district, and the third to the Choo Choo Kang or Westerndistrict. These parties were generally successful in killing half adozen or so in the course of the year, chiefly in the Central or gardendistrict. Recourse was also had to trapping them in cleverly-constructeddeep pits, built cone-wise, and by heavy beams of timber suspended fromtree to tree over their tracks, connected on the ground with springes;but only upon rare occasions were they successful in this way. We had inour possession several skins and skulls from those destroyed byconvicts. Some castes amongst these convicts from India, when employedon this duty, were also very expert in catching such venomous snakes ascobras and craits. They appeared not to possess the slightest dread ofthem, and would stealthily follow them to their burrows, then grasp thetail, and by a rapid movement of the other hand along the body to justbelow the head, grip the snake firmly at the neck and allow it to coilround their arm. During the construction of Fort Canning, later on, manywere so caught and brought down to the jail for the reward. They werethen destroyed, the convicts at the time always asking pardon of thesnake for so betraying it to their masters. It is worth mentioning herethat in the jail there were so many different races of India, and men ofso many occupations and artifices, that what a man of one caste did notknow, another would be sure to volunteer to perform. This collection ofsuch a variety of races in a jail under the association system hadanother and more important advantage, for it was at once a safeguardand protection against any possible combined revolt against theauthorities, for one caste would invariably "split" against another. It was in the year 1841 that it was decided to erect a jail for theIndian convicts on a site near the Brass Basa Canal on the east of thetown, and immediately below Government Hill, now known as Fort Canning. The boundary wall was first built, and then a brick building within, which was subsequently used as a convict hospital. This is shown in theplan of the whole prison made in 1872, a copy of which is given later. In this brick building the defaulters and those in irons were placed onone side, and the local prisoners on the other. The remainder of theconvicts were lodged in temporary structures inside the enclosure wall;and those employed in positions of trust were allowed to erect smallhuts for themselves in the style of a native village just outside thewall, in which they were allowed to have their wives and families. Therewas but one entrance to this enclosure, where convict warders were atall times stationed as a gate guard. It will be readily understood thatdiscipline could not well be maintained under such circumstances, whileno records appear to have been kept of any kind, relating to their dailyemployment or occupation, so there is nothing to show whether theconvicts were employed in the erection of this boundary wall; but it ismore probable that they were only used as labourers, and not asartisans, for it was not until a later date that they were organized andtrained as skilled workmen. It may be well for us to indicate here the progress made in theSingapore town up to 1842, as given by _The Free Press_ newspaper inthat year. It runs thus:-- "A stranger visiting Singapore cannot fail to be struck by the signs everywhere exhibited of the settlement being in a high state of prosperity and progressive improvement. If he lands on the side next the town he beholds the pathway in front of the merchants' 'godowns' or warehouses cumbered with packages, and if he glances inside one of the 'godowns' he will see it filled with packages and bales of goods from all parts of the world. If he goes among the native shops he finds them filled with clamorous Klings (natives of the Coromandel Coast of India) and Chinese, all busily engaged in driving bargains. Passing on, he comes to where, near the jail, the swamp is being filled up and covered with shops, which are seen in every stage of progress, some with the foundations newly laid, and others nearly completed. If he wishes to leave the town he crosses the Singapore River by a new bridge, which was built two years ago. The scene now undergoes a change: in place of the narrow and crooked streets the stranger finds himself amongst rows of neat villas, each standing in its own enclosure. The Governor's residence is to the left upon a small hill commanding a fine view of the town and harbour. The flag-staff is also placed there, and at all hours of the day may be seen covered with flags, announcing the approach of ships from every quarter of the globe. If he should go into the country, the many thriving plantations of spices and other tropical productions (amongst which are to be noted one or two sugar estates) present an equally pleasing sight, and give promise of a long continuance to the well-being of the settlement. " In this year, 1842, or it may perhaps have been in the previous year, Mr. J. T. Thompson came to Singapore in the capacity of GovernmentSurveyor; whereupon the Government called upon all holders and occupiersof land to point out to him their boundaries, preparatory to the issueof proper leases. Under his direction there was a systematic survey madeof all allotments upon the island; and intelligent Indian convicts wereprovided him to act as his survey party, being preferred for that dutyover freemen to be obtained in the town. These convicts formed thenucleus of a regular native staff for this department of the Government;and, indeed, up to the time of the abolition of the jail they continuedto be employed as chainmen and survey assistants. When Mr. Thompson visited Malacca, to inquire into the system pursuedthere, he found it to be of the most primitive type. For the linearmeasurements the surveyor had for a chain, rattans jointed together, andthis, with a ten-foot rod and a common compass, formed their wholeequipment. When he tested however the measurements of the fields and thetown lots, he was surprised to find to what approach to accuracy theyhad arrived with their rude implements. Indian convicts were also thereemployed as land measurers and assistants. Upon his return to Singapore, Mr. Thompson designed a European hospital, and adjoining it a pauper hospital, erected mostly at the cost of abenevolent Chinese gentleman of the name of Tan-Tock-Seng. They werebuilt on a plateau of Pearls Hill facing the town. Some years laterthese buildings were required for military purposes, and were adaptedfor the purposes of a Commissariat and Ordnance Department respectively. A new building, in which was incorporated a general hospital, wassubsequently erected facing the Bukit Timah Road, and the Tan-Tock-Senghospital for paupers was built further outside the town on the SerangoonRoad. In the erection of these buildings convict labour was very largelyutilised, and in the front elevation of Tan-Tock-Seng's hospital theyhad some rather difficult mouldings to execute. In the year 1844, owing to the amount of building that was then going onin the town, there was a great dearth of bricks; so much so, that theChinese brick-kilns could not supply the immense demand, and the priceper laksa of 10, 000 rose more than fifty per cent. This led to thedetermination on the part of the Government to make their own bricks, and an order was issued to the Public Works Department to arrange fortheir manufacture by the convicts. This was subsequently done; and asuitable site having been found upon the Serangoon Road, a largeestablishment was started, an account of which will be given in detailwhen we come to deal with the industrial occupations of the Indianconvicts. The first Government brick-field, however, was started atRochore, under Captain Faber, but was given up after only a short trial. He employed free labour. Chapter VI SINGAPORE (_Continued_) During the year 1845 the Bukit Timah Road was opened up by convictlabour between Bukit Timah and Kranji, so that the produce hithertocarried by water to Singapore from the neighbouring country of Johorecould now be brought into town by road, while at the same time land wasthus opened up for cultivation. The convicts were also employed in thisyear in constructing a road to the summit of Telok Blangah Hill, nowcalled Mount Faber, for the purpose of building there a signal station, that upon the island of Blakan Mati having proved unhealthy, due, as itwas said at the time, to malaria from the enclosed marsh at the back ofthe island, and to the tainted air from decaying pine-apple leaves, which were left by the Malays, who cultivated the fruit upon all theavailable soil. Pine-apple growing has been largely extended in thisisland, as is now generally known at home; and as it is a source of somewealth to the colony, it may be incidentally mentioned in this runninghistory of the place, and more particularly in reference to the factthat the Indian convicts upon ticket of leave have been often employedin its culture in order to earn a daily wage. The plant that producesthe pine-apple known as the "ananas, " or by the Malays as "nanas, " growsliterally wild upon the hills on Blakan Mati Island, and other islandsround about Singapore. It delights in a moist climate, and here it hasit to perfection, with just enough heat to help its growth. There islittle or no trouble in its propagation, for after the apple issufficiently ripe and cut, the crown that surmounts the fruit isplanted, and a new plantation soon springs up. There is, however, somedifference in the sweetness and flavour of the fruit, according to theexposure to which it is subjected, those having the benefit of the sunbeing preferred. The first to export the tinned fruit to Europe was a Frenchman namedBastiani, [5] who succeeded far beyond his expectations, and the industryhas since been taken up largely by the Chinese in Singapore and Johore. [Footnote 5: He was known to both of us when he commenced the undertaking. ] Yet another of the important public works of the colony, upon which thelabour of Indian convicts was employed some five years earlier, was atthe construction of the lighthouse on "Pedro Branca, " called the"Horsburgh, " after the celebrated hydrographer of that name. The designwas by Thompson, and the selection of the site by Sir Edward Belcher, R. N. , and most of the detail work was under the direct supervision ofMr. J. Bennett, a civil and mechanical engineer, who afterwards, as wehave said, played a prominent part in the direction and control of thelabour and industrial training of the Indian convicts in the Singaporejail. He had, as an assistant, Mr. Magaelhaens of the ConvictDepartment, and both the officers and the convicts lived on board of a"Tonkong, " or a large boat, which was anchored close to the rock. Theconvicts were chiefly employed in the capacity of blasters and dressersof stone. The foundation stone was laid with masonic honours by theWorshipful Master Brother M. F. Davidson, on the 24th May, 1850, in thepresence of the Governor, Colonel Butterworth, and a large party fromSingapore; and the work was completed and the lamps lighted on the 27thSeptember, 1851. The _Free Press_ spoke of it as an edifice of which Singapore might wellbe proud. "The granite blocks which form the walls were quarried andshaped at Pulo Ubin, the timber used in the building was the growth ofour island, the brass rails of the staircases were moulded and turned inthis settlement, and last, not least, the architect and engineeracquired the skill and experience which enabled him to erect so rapidlythe chaste and stately building during a long and useful career asGovernment Surveyor at Singapore. " Both the quarrying of the stone atPulo Ubin, and the felling of the timber required in the erection ofthis lighthouse, were by the work of Indian convicts. In 1845 the foundation stone of a second lighthouse was laid on a reefnear a small island at the eastern entrance to the Straits of Malaccacalled "The Coney. " It was also laid with masonic honours by theWorshipful Master and Brethren of the Lodge Zetland in the East, No. 748, in the presence of the Governor, Colonel Butterworth, and many ofthe British and foreign residents at Singapore. This lighthouse wasnamed after the eminent founder of the settlement, Sir T. StamfordRaffles, and was completed in 1856. It was built by free labour, butmany convicts were employed, as at the "Horsburgh, " as stone cutters, blasters, and as labourers, under the charge of an officer of theConvict Department. We have referred elsewhere to the rules that had from time to time beenframed for the control of these Indian convicts, but now we are able tostate that in 1845-46 what may be called the most complete code of ruleswas permanently established. Colonel Butterworth, who was then Governorof the Straits Settlements, in consultation with the Superintendent ofthe Convicts, collected all that had been previously issued, togetherwith those that subsequent experience had shown to be necessary, andworking on the principles laid down by Sir Stamford Raffles, the new setof "Rules and Regulations for the Management of the Indian Convicts"was formally sanctioned, and put in force under the title of the"Butterworth Rules. " These rules practically recognised the total abolition of free wardersin the control of the convicts, and the substitution entirely of pettyofficers, raised from amongst the convicts themselves, together with thedivision of the convicts into six distinct classes, according to theirdate of arrival in the prison, and their general subsequent behaviour;holding out to one and to all by exemplary conduct during theirprobationary period a certain progressive reward and promotion. Added to these "Butterworth Rules" were several others of importance, introduced by Major McNair in 1858-59, and sanctioned by the Governmentfrom time to time as additions to this code. Later, Captain, nowGeneral, J. G. Forlong came to Singapore, as we have stated, to studythe convict system in force; and from the rules in use and the numerousstanding orders that had been issued at various times, he prepared avaluable digest of the whole, which he duly submitted to the Governmentof India, in which he said, "I have but lately visited most of theconvict prisons of England, living for some time with the Governor ofthe Dartmoor jail, and I have seen many Indian prisons, and can statefor the Singapore system and establishment, that it is not inferior tothose of England, and quite unequalled by any I have seen in India. " It is to Captain, the late General, Man that the initiation of severalhandicrafts is due, and he commenced by starting all kinds of carpenterwork. The old Guthrie's timber bridge across the Singapore River, forinstance, was entirely their work. They were also then taughtbrick-laying and blacksmith work; and so valuable was this trainedlabour to the State, even at that time, that the Superintending Engineerof the station wrote to Government in 1849 as follows:-- "I can most confidently, and without fear of refutation, assert it to be simply impracticable to induce and obtain from Chinese carpenters that accurate, close, substantial, and lasting workmanship which not only can be, but is derived from the convict artificers under the absolute control of the present able and zealous Superintendent, Captain Man. " We must here not forget to refer to another public building, in theerection of which the Indian convicts took their part, viz. The NewCivil Jail at Pearls Hill, the foundation stone of which was laid byCaptain Faber, the Superintending Engineer of the Straits Settlements. Below the stone a brass plate was deposited with the followinginscription, which we give in full as of some peculiar interest, andevidence of the progress of the settlement up to 1847. This Foundation Stone of H. M. Gaol, at Singapore, was laid by Captain Faber, Madras Engineers, Superintending Engineer, Straits Settlements, on the 6th February, 1847, the 27th Anniversary of the Foundation of a British Settlement on this Island. The Hon'ble Colonel W. J. Butterworth, C. B. , being Governor of Prince of Wales Island, Singapore, and Malacca, and the Hon'ble T. Church, Resident Councillor at Singapore. VICTORIA, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, the Right Hon'ble Lord Hardinge, G. C. B. , Governor-General of British India. God save the Queen. In a bottle, likewise placed below the stone, the following statisticalinformation relative to the Straits Settlements, written on parchment, was enclosed. The trade for the year 1845-46 of Prince of Wales Island, Singapore, andMalacca aggregated the sum of Company's Rs. 52, 190, 685 in merchandise, and Company's Rs. 9, 606, 061 in bullion and treasure, making a grandtotal of Rs. 61, 796, 746 (exclusive of the trade between the threesettlements) as follows:-- Imports. Exports. Total. P. W. Island Rs. 6, 614, 794 6, 528, 452 = 13, 143, 246 Singapore " 26, 616, 448 21, 162, 987 = 47, 779, 435 Malacca " 509, 872 364, 193 = 874, 065 __________ Grand total, Company's Rs. 61, 796, 746 ---------- W. J. BUTTERWORTH, Governor. SINGAPORE, _6th February, 1847_. The revenue and charges for the year 1845-46 of Prince of Wales Island, Singapore, and Malacca, including Civil, Military, Marine, Judicial, Convicts, etc. , were as follows:-- _Charges. _ P. W. Island Co. 's Rs. 402, 783 15 11 Singapore " " 497, 186 14 5 Malacca " " 231, 158 12 5 -------------Rs. 1, 131, 129 10 5 _Revenue. _ P. W. Island Co. 's Rs. 185, 443 2 9 Singapore 530, 040 15 7 Malacca 64, 408 9 11 -------------Rs. 779, 893 12 3 --------------- Total deficit at three settlements Rs. 351, 236 14 6 =============== W. J. BUTTERWORTH, Governor. SINGAPORE, _6th February, 1847_. In the year 1848 we find that the Indian convicts were employed inblasting some considerable part of a mass of rock known to the Malays asBatu Belayer, or "Stone to sail to, " and by Europeans as "Lot's wife. "It was a dangerous obstruction to navigation, being situated on theSingapore side of the western entrance to the New Harbour. [6] It isreported as known to the old navigators of those seas, and was shown onold charts over two hundred years ago. [Footnote 6: This entrance to Singapore was called New Harbour after the construction there of Cloughton's Dock, now the much improved New Harbour Dock. Singapore can now boast of another fine dock at Tanjong Pagar, constructed some forty years ago, and an additional dock is reported to be in contemplation. ] In following _The Anecdotal History_ it may be well to mention here, asshowing the steady progress of Singapore, that a census was again takenin 1849, which gave the total population at 59, 043--Europeans beinggiven at 198, Eurasians at 304, Chinese at 24, 790; and the remainder wasmade up of Malays and other nationalities of the Indian Archipelago, andfrom the Coromandel Coast. This was recorded as only a trifling increaseon 1848 amongst the Chinese, and was attributed to the decrease in theChinese coolies working in the interior of the island, owing to theexhaustion of much soil, and the low price of produce, which had causedmany of the planters to open new plantations in Johore. As an evidence of the variety of the employments to which these Indianconvicts were turned by the Government, it should be remarked thatduring the Chinese riots in 1851, when the Chinese Hwuys began todistrust their countrymen who had become converted to Christianity by aRoman Catholic mission in the interior of the island, these convictswere sent out in gangs to follow the rioters into the jungles anddisperse them. These riots lasted for over a week, and it required thepresence at last of the military to quell them. As it was, over 500Chinese were killed, and among them many of the well-to-do Christianconverts who had become planters. Utilized as the services of these convicts from India were by theGovernment of that day, and their being wholly different in theirhabits, customs, and language from the Chinese who formed the bulk ofthe town population, it is not to be wondered at that the Chinese feltthemselves estranged from them, and kept themselves ever aloof. Therewere, however, some Chinese of the lowest class who sought to embroilthemselves with them, so as to bring the convicts into trouble, but theconvicts always avoided a quarrel. They therefore sought other means, and in 1852 they gave out and placarded over the town that the Governorand all the Europeans had left worshipping in St. Andrew's Church, owingto the number of evil spirits there, and had gone to worship in theCourt House, and that in order to appease the spirits the Governorrequired thirty heads, and had ordered the convicts to waylay people atnight and kill them. These placards created quite a panic in the place, so that people werefor some days afraid to leave their houses after dark. In order to allaythe fears of the people the Governor issued a proclamation saying thatSt. Andrew's Church had been struck by lightning and was unsafe (whichwas the fact), and he called upon the people not to believe the reportsof evil men. Moreover, he offered a reward of $500 for the discovery ofany person propagating such reports. This had no effect however, so theleading Chinese merchants were called upon to address their countrymen, which they did in a long appeal, assuring them of the benevolence of theChristian Government, and urging them to have no fear and not believe infoolish reports. In two days the fears of the Chinese population werethus dispelled. In 1875 a similar "head scare" occurred during theconstruction of the "puddle trench" for the new impounding reservoir. This was a work of considerable difficulty, and some superstitiousnatives circulated a report that it could not be done without "humansacrifice, " and that the Government were looking for "heads" to put intothe trench, and the alarm for days was so great that people would notpass along Thompson's Road adjoining the reservoir after dark; and eventhe "dhobies, " or washer-men, in the stream adjoining the puddle trench, hastened into town before dusk. Similar so called "head scares" haveoccurred in Singapore up to even the present time. It is not easy todefine what has led to this superstition in the native mind, and it ismade more complicated from the fact that it is shared alike by Chineseand natives of India. In many of the Polynesian Islands the practice ofhuman sacrifices we know exists even in our own days, and that chiefs, when they build a house or a war-canoe, offer up a human being; and thePolynesians and Indonesians resemble one another very closely. But sucha superstition has not come to us through the Malay race, and we mustrather seek for its origin from the Aryan Hindus of India; and as theChinese took most of their tradition and folk-lore from the cradle ofthe Aryan races, the belief might thus be common to both peoples. [7] TheRev. Mr. Ward, writing early in this century, refers to the humansacrifices at Bardwan, in Bengal, and says of them: "The discovery ofmurders in the name of religion was made by finding bodies with theheads cut off, and placed near the images of 'Durga' and 'Kali. '" Alsoat Serampur, before the temple of the goddess "Jara, " a human body wasfound without a head. Whatever the origin of the superstition may betraced to, the municipality at Singapore were wisely advised, and wethink very properly declined to take any notice of the recent "headscare" of this year, and we can only hope that these apprehensions willgradually cease to stir the minds of the people as they become moreinstructed and advanced in civilization. [Footnote 7: The old mystic symbol of the Swastika of India, for instance, [Illustration: A clockwise Swastika] is common amongst the Mongolian races, and other signs of an early union between these races might be given. ] Among the many works of utility carried on by convict labour during thetenure of the office of Superintendent of Convicts by Captain Man wasthe widening and improving of the Bukit Timah Canal, in order to drainthe adjacent low lands, and render them capable for cultivation bymarket gardeners. In the cutting of these artificial channels theconvicts from India had great aptitude, and some of them had beenemployed on similar work in their own country. The largest work, however, commenced in Captain Man's time, was the erection of the wholeof the permanent buildings required for the location of the then largenumber of Indian convicts. They were built within the surrounding wallof the jail, near the "Brass Basa" or "Wet Rice" Canal, and entirely bythe labour of the convicts themselves. The estimate for the work made bythe Superintending Engineer for their execution by free labour was100, 000 rupees, but the money cost to the Government was only 12, 000rupees, when executed by convict labour and with convict-made materials. To effect this, the convicts were trained to make the bricks, to dig andburn coral for lime, to quarry stone for foundations, and to fell thetimber in Government forests in the island, and to dress it for rooftimbers, door and window frames, and so forth. When Captain Man went to Malacca as Resident Councillor, Captain RonaldMacpherson, of the Madras Artillery, succeeded him as Superintendent ofConvicts, Singapore, and carried on the works in progress at the time. This was in the year 1855. The most prominent work commenced by theconvicts in his time, and subsequently carried to completion, was theerection of the new church, now the cathedral of the diocese. It must beacknowledged that it was a courageous act on the part of CaptainMacpherson to have designed a church in the early English style ofarchitecture, and to have pledged himself to the Government that hewould undertake to construct it wholly by convict labour. We think itshowed both confidence in himself and in his convict workpeople, andnothing could more clearly have proved to what perfection their skilledlabour had advanced than that he felt himself able to embark on soelaborate a work. It was in May of this year, 1855, that the Bengal Government approved ofthe project, and sanctioned the expenditure in cash of 47, 000 rupeesupon its construction. The Bishop of Calcutta laid the foundation stoneduring next year before a large concourse of the merchants and residentsof the place, and the inscription below the stone ran as follows:-- The first English church of Singapore, commenced A. D. 1834, and consecrated A. D. 1838, having become dilapidated, this stone of a new and more commodious edifice, dedicated to the worship of Almighty God according to the rites and discipline of the Church of England, under the name of St. Andrew, was laid by the Right Reverend Daniel Wilson, D. D. , Lord Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan, on the 4th March, 1856, in the twenty-fourth year of his episcopate. The Hon'ble Edmund Augustus Blundell being the Governor of the Straits Settlements. The Hon'ble Thomas Church being Resident Councillor of Singapore. Lieut-Col. Charles Pooley, of the Madras Army, Commanding the Troops. The Rev. William Topley Humphrey being Chaplain. And Captain Ronald McPherson of the Madras Artillery being the Architect. The Building to be erected at the charge of the Hon'ble East India Company. Full Estimate of cost: Co. 's Rupees 120, 932, or with Convict Labour Rupees 47, 916. In May, 1857, Captain Man proceeded from Malacca to Penang as ResidentCouncillor of that settlement, and Captain Macpherson took his place atMalacca. Captain Purvis, also of the Madras Artillery, was appointed tosucceed Captain Macpherson in the combined duties of engineer andSuperintendent of Convicts; but, to the regret of the Government, herelinquished the appointment at the close of the year, and LieutenantMcNair, another Madras Artillery officer, succeeded him. Lieutenant (nowMajor) McNair was a passed interpreter in the Hindustani language, whichwas spoken by the bulk of the convicts in the jail, and he subsequentlyqualified as a civil engineer. He remained in charge of the convictsuntil the jail was abolished in 1873. Upon his assuming charge, the foundations of the new church had beenlaid and the masonry built up to nearly three feet above ground. Thework was steadily carried on in accordance with the plans of CaptainMacpherson, with the single exception that it was found necessary, owingto the weakness of the foundations, to abandon the heavy tower, and toplace a light steeple instead. In the building of this church, Mr. JohnBennett afforded most material assistance as Assistant Superintendent ofConvicts. To his oversight and careful attention to the variety ofdetails incident to such a work may be ascribed its satisfactorycompletion in January, 1862, when the edifice was consecrated by thethen Bishop of Calcutta, Dr. George Cotton, who so unfortunately met hisdeath in 1866 by being drowned in the Ganges. Further details inconnection with this work will also be given under the heading of"Convict Industries and Public Works. " Chapter VII SINGAPORE (_Continued_) To continue the narrative according to date, we trace that in the year1858, after the mutiny, the Indian Government came to the conclusionthat at all principal centres "field redoubts" should be constructed, tobe available as places of refuge for Europeans in the event of a nativerising; and accordingly orders were given for the fortification ofSingapore. Colonel Collyer, of the Madras Engineers, was therefore sentover from Madras to design and carry out the necessary military works, and he was given the appointment of Chief Engineer of the StraitsSettlements. He selected Government Hill for the main work, and improved and enlargedthe batteries on Mounts Palmer and Faber, being of opinion that, beyondthe idea of a place of refuge, the island should be fortified to resistaggression from without. All his plans were approved, and, as LordCanning had then become the first "Viceroy" of India, the main work wasnamed after him, which name it bears to this day. In the execution ofmost of the earthwork, Chinese labour was employed, but the convictswere utilized in building the sally ports, constructing the drawbridge, sinking the deep wells; and the whole of the bricks, and much of thelime and cement required, were manufactured by the convicts at theGovernment kilns on the Serangoon Road. Colonel Collyer also designedother important works in the place, notably the Collyer Quay. MajorMayne, of the same corps, succeeded him, and in his time the waterworksscheme for the town was initiated, but not carried fully to completion, and fresh designs became necessary under his successor, in consultationwith the late Sir Robert Rawlinson, K. C. B. During this year also the convicts were employed in the erection of anew court house (now the public offices), the general hospital, lunaticasylum, pauper hospital, and some other minor public works. They alsobuilt the walls of the reclamation works along the sea front, now knownas Collyer Quay, and above referred to, and the river wall at CampongMalacca. Both these sea and river works had been attempted by freelabour, but the work of the convicts for this class of rubble wallingwas found more suitable, and therefore it was carried on by them, andwith satisfactory results in every way. [Illustration: DISTRIBUTION OF JAIL BUILDINGS, SINGAPORE. _Plate X. _] Shortly after the transfer of the Straits Settlements to the Crown, which occurred on the 1st April, 1867, the Governor, then Sir Harry St. George Ord, called upon Major McNair, who had been appointed ColonialEngineer and Comptroller of the Indian Convicts, to prepare plans for aGovernment House to be erected near Mount Sophia, somewhat under twomiles from the town. The plans were approved by the Governor, and passedby the Legislative Council early in 1868. The land on which it standscost $43, 800, and the building, furniture, and laying out of thegrounds, $115, 000, and the work, with convict labour, was finished forthe reception of H. R. H. The Duke of Edinburgh[8] in December, 1869. [Footnote 8: Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. ] DESCRIPTION OF THE SINGAPORE CONVICT JAIL. We have already incidentally referred to the plans of Captain Man forthe erection of a permanent jail for the Indian convicts, which he hadagreed to construct wholly by convict labour. The enclosure wall alreadyexisted, within which the original temporary buildings and thatched hutshad been run up for their shelter. Only one solid building was withinit, part of which was used as a hospital and the remainder for theconfinement of convicts in irons. The next permanent building to beerected was quarters for the chief warder, and then came the solidgateways and guard-rooms. After these were built the wards for thefourth and fifth classes, or convicts in irons, then Nos. 1 and 2 wards, all shown on the plan (Plate X. ) attached. Then a work-yard was enclosedby a solid wall, and offices built near the outer entrance to it, forthe offices of the engineer and Superintendent of Convicts. While thiswall was under construction by one gang, other gangs were employed inerecting within the main enclosure a refractory ward and punishmentcells, and other minor buildings required in the way of store rooms, filter rooms, [9] chain room, and a receiving room for fresh arrivals;and the effectual drainage of the whole prison. [Footnote 9: These filters were of the simplest construction. They consisted of three very porous earthenware pots or "chatties" placed on a tripod. In the first was the water to be filtered, a foot off was the pot full of charcoal and white sand, and the filtered water was drawn off from the third. The charcoal and sand were renewed twice a week. ] It was only when all these buildings were actually completed, in theyear 1860, that the establishment assumed the character of a prison; andthe convicts themselves were not slow to realize the fact, for it becamea proverb amongst them that "an open campong, or village, had become aclosed cage. " In 1857 there were altogether under the control of the convictauthorities no fewer than 2, 139 transported felons from India and aboutfifty from Hongkong. About one half of this number were localised in themain prison, the other half being employed upon the country roads, thequarries, and brickfields. These were of the third class; the secondclass men were detailed for duties as Government messengers, punkahpullers at the hospitals and Government offices, and others of thisclass also as "lookout men" at the flag-staff stations, helpers to lightkeepers, crews for the Government boats conveying firewood to the jailand brick kilns, and others digging and conveying coral for limeburning. In the main prison the wards were built of a uniform length of 230 feet, breadth 60 feet, and height of walls 20 feet. The wards were not ceiled, but open to the tiles, with a ridge ventilator along the whole roof. Beneath the side windows, which were barred, ground ventilation wasprovided, in order to ensure a current of air throughout the wholebuilding. The floors were laid in concrete, and cemented over with"soorkee, " or brick dust and cement mixed, and graded to the sides. Eachward was arranged to contain four hundred convicts. All the convictswere in association, separate confinement being restricted to thepunishment cells. In each ward were platform sleeping benches. They wereraised three feet at the head, and two feet nine inches at the foot, above the floor, and were coated with coal tar except on the actualsleeping place. Lime-wash was used for the inner roofing timbers and tiles, andgenerally for the walls, except for the three feet of dado, which wascoated with coal tar. Parts of this dado were daily re-coated with hotfresh tar, as we found coal tar to be a valuable deodorizer. To eachward there were four night urinals, detached from the main building andprovided with double spring doors. In each urinal there were utensilscoated with coal tar, and at every corner iron crates filled withwood-charcoal to absorb noxious vapours. Down the centre of each wardspit-boxes were provided for second and third class convicts accustomedto betel chewing. There was always a night watch of one petty convictofficer in each ward, and surprise visits were often paid at night bythe Superintendent, his assistant, and the chief warder. Going down award at night, one might see four hundred or more of these convicts, each enveloped from head to foot in a "chadar, " or native sheet, literally over head and ears in sleep. They were all properly worked, properly fed, and properly punished when they deserved it; so, with thebenefit of the two first, and a wholesome dread of the third, no wonderthey were soon lulled to sleep when the prison doors were closed uponthem. Now, at the risk of being a little tedious, we propose to describein some detail the "day" latrines in use in this old jail. Theinformation may, we think, be of service to those who have nativeprisoners under their charge either in jails or police stations in theEast. At this period of time, when conservancy has rightly taken a firstplace in all such establishments, it may be thought by some to besuperfluous, but the system pursued by us worked so very well that we donot hesitate to give an account of it. There were many such latrines in the prison, so we will confine ourremarks to one only. The building in use for this purpose was aboutseventy feet in length and twenty feet wide, and the tiled roof wassupported upon brick pillars raised twelve feet from the ground. In itsconstruction care was taken, above all things, to ensure a solid floor"impervious" to "moisture. " This was made by first laying down sixinches of well-prepared concrete, consisting of pounded granite, brick-dust, and gravel cemented together by hydraulic mortar, thenoverlaid with pure cement, and after this coated with an inch thick ofasphalt. Around the whole building was an open drain, about two feetinside of the pillars, and built like the floor, and carefully graded tothe outfall. The walls, pillars, and drains were coated with coal tar, and here and there daily renewed to ensure deodorization. Close to thedrain, and at eighteen inches apart, were placed troughs of hard woodtwo feet in length, one foot nine inches wide, and nine inches deep, with stout handles at either end. These troughs were smeared over withpitch. Between every second trough was placed a box containing about abushel of powdered red earth, perfectly dry, and in each box was a ladlemade of half a cocoanut shell attached to a handle. Two convicts of thesixth, or feeble class, were placed in charge of this latrine, whoseduty it was to see that the red earth was sprinkled by those using thetroughs. When the troughs were full they were emptied into aconservancy cart with a hermetically closed screw top, and when this wasfull it was conveyed by bullocks to plantations in the country. We think we are quite warranted in saying that this was the first jail, if not the first establishment anywhere, in which this dry earth systemof conservancy was used. For centuries, no doubt, in India thewell-known habit of the cat had been followed by many of the nativecastes, but it was not until vast numbers of these convicts from Indiawere aggregated in association that the application of the system totheir dwellings was initiated, and we think that the clever invention ofthe "earth closet" for certain localities may have suggested itself toits inventor when a resident at Singapore. It may be as well to give here the testimony of Dr. Mouat, theInspector-General of Jails, Bengal, on the efficiency of the conservancyof this old jail, and in no spirit of self-satisfaction we quote his ownwords "verbatim, " which are as follows:-- "Singapore, _1st June, 1865_. --I have sincere pleasure in recording the unmixed satisfaction which I have experienced from a careful examination of the jail, and system of prison management in use at Singapore. The scrupulous cleanliness, perfect plan of conservancy, excellent order, well-regulated system of labour and punishments, and the high standard of health attained are not surpassed in any other well-regulated institution of the same kind that I am acquainted with in Europe or in Asia. My personal knowledge of prisons and of all details of prison management is sufficiently extended to entitle me to speak with authority on this subject. In many important points of internal economy and discipline, Singapore can fairly lay claim to being _Primus in Indis_ in the adoption and practical working of principles that are now generally accepted as sound and correct. My own feeling on the subject is that Colonels Man and Macpherson and Captain McNair, to whom the chief credit appears to be due, are entitled to rank in the first class of prison officers and reformers in India. " Perhaps the last addition to the jail buildings was the erection by theconvict bricklayers and plasterers of a stand to hold the prison bell, and from whence to call the roll at general musters. It was built in theform of a "monopteron, " a sort of structure without walls, and composedof columns arranged in a circle, and supporting a covered cupola. Chapter VIII DIVISION INTO CLASSES, TRADES, FOOD, AND CLOTHING We now come to deal with perhaps not a very inviting part of oursubject, viz. The division of the convicts into classes, theirsupervision, artificer trades, hours of work, food, and clothing, but itmust be told in brief in order to make the narrative of this jailcomplete. They were divided into six classes, but since the year 1857, when MajorMcNair took charge, sec. A of the third class, and sec. A of the fifthclass were added to the classification. The _First Class_ consisted of trustworthy convicts allowed out on ticket of leave. _Second Class_ consisted of convict petty officers, male and female, and those employed in hospitals and public offices. _Third Class_ were convicts employed on roads and public works, having passed through their probationary course. _Fourth Class_ were convicts newly arrived, and those degraded from other classes or promoted from the fifth class. They worked in light irons. _Fifth Class_ were convicts degraded from the higher classes, and such as required more than ordinary vigilance to prevent escape, or regarding whom special instructions had been received from India. They worked in heavy irons. _Sixth Class_ were invalids and superannuated convicts. Youths were transferred to a special gang for "boys. " [Illustration: DUFFADAR RAM SINGH, SENIOR PETTY OFFICER OF THE JAIL. _McNair. _ _Plate XII. _] Convicts, if for life, were admitted to the first class after havingbeen sixteen years in transportation; if for seventeen years, aftertwelve years; and if for seven years, after having been six years intransportation. Females, for whatever period, from three to five years. Before a ticket of leave could be granted, the convict had to providepersonal security for his good behaviour and continued presence in thesettlement; and any misdemeanour on his part involved a revoking of histicket of leave, and his return to confinement in the prison andreduction to a lower class. All _First Class_ convicts, whether male orfemale, had to attend muster on the first of every month, and had tokeep the Superintendent informed of their place of residence, and werebound to sleep in it every night. _Second Class_ convicts were employed as stated. They were allowed togo out of the jail after working hours, but had to appear at 8 p. M. Rollcall daily (except those employed at hospitals and in special duties), and were required to sleep in prison at night. Convicts were admitted tothis class, on good behaviour, at the Superintendent's discretion, asfollows:-- If transported for 7 years, after 5 years. " " 14 " " 7 " " " life, " 8 " All jail petty officers, from duffadars to orderlies, were included inthis class, and no convict was eligible for an orderly until he had beeneight years in transportation; promotion went either by seniority orqualification, but he should have been an orderly for two years beforebeing promoted to a peon. _Third Class_ convicts. Convicts were admitted to this class at theSuperintendent's discretion-- If transported for 12 years, after 12 months. " " 14 " " 2 years. " " life, " 3 " This was not a chain class, and one rupee a month was allowed to eachman for the purchase of condiments, called "subsistence money. " If notbelonging to the country gangs, and of approved good conduct, this classwas allowed, after working hours, to be outside the prison until 6 p. M. , if they had already completed four years in transportation; until thatperiod had been discharged they were confined after work was over. Thisclass was allowed to use their sectarian marks as a privilege. Degradedprisoners of this class were called "Sec. A, 3rd Class, " and wore a ringon each ankle; they were strictly confined to the jail precincts. [Illustration: HEAD TINDAL MAISTRI OF CART MAKERS AND WHEELWRIGHTS. Plate XIII. ] _Fourth Class. _ All newly arrived convicts, except those regarding whomspecial instructions had been received from India, were placed in thisclass, and served their probation in it. They were worked in doublelight irons, and were not allowed to leave the prison except for work;they were not granted any money allowance, but fish, vegetables andcondiments were supplied to them with their rations. They were, however, allowed the privilege to cook their own food. _Fifth Class. _ This was a "punishment class" for troublesome charactersfrom the upper classes, and every man degraded to it had to serve twoyears before being again promoted to the fourth class, and an additionalsix months before he could be promoted to the third class, unless theSuperintendent saw sufficiently good cause for leniency. This classreceived clothing and rations like the fourth class, with vegetables, fish, and condiments; but all were cooked for them in mess under aconvict cook. They received no money allowance, and were not allowed toleave the prison except for work. Refractory prisoners of this classwere called "Sec. A, 5th Class"; they were put in the heaviest irons, with wrist irons if necessary, and were confined in the refractory wardon severe task work, as making coir from the rough husk of thecocoa-nuts, pounding and cleaning rice, and such like hard labour. "Flogging": If upon rare occasions this punishment had to be resortedto, the culprit was first inspected by the medical officer to see if hewere capable to undergo the sentence: usually the number of lashes wasfrom one dozen up to six dozen with the cat-o'-nine-tails. If passed bythe medical officer, the punishment was inflicted in the presence of theconvicts, and by selected convict warders, the medical officer or hisapothecary being invariably present during the infliction. The triangleswere of the usual pattern, and the flogging was on the buttock. No person was allowed to punish a convict but the Superintendent or theAssistant Superintendent acting for him. The defaulter was brought tothe inquiry room, the case inquired into fully, and the default andsentence duly recorded in a book kept for the purpose. [Illustration: CONVICT OF THE SECOND CLASS AND MUNSHI. _Plate XIV. _] _Sixth Class. _ This class embraced all invalid and incapable men whowere able to perform light work, as sweepers, watchmen in countrycommands, and in charge of latrines; also caretakers at Governmentbungalows, and those superannuated men who were exempt from all work. Noconvicts were admitted to this class until declared unfit for hard workby the medical officer and the Annual Medical Committee. Men ofapproved conduct got the indulgences of their former class. Femaleconvicts belonged to this class, of which there were always a few undertransportation. They were confined in a separate ward under a convictmatron, and no prison male warder was allowed therein on pain ofdegradation. The supervising staff consisted of a Superintendent--who was also theExecutive Engineer of the station--and his assistant, a chief warder andtwo assistants, an overseer of artificers and of roads. The nativestaff, being all petty officers raised from amongst the convicts, consisted of three duffadars, eight first tindals, twenty-two secondtindals, ninety-four peons, and sixty-five orderlies, for the number ofconvicts then under confinement. In the year 1857 there were 2, 139 convicts from different parts ofIndia, Burmah, and Ceylon in this jail; but upon an average, until theprison was broken up, there were 1, 900 always under control. The menfrom India were Seikhs, Dogras, Pallis, or a shepherd race; Thugs andDacoits from different parts of the Bengal presidency, and mostly fromround about Delhi and Agra; felons from all parts of the Madras andBombay presidencies, and a few from Assam and Burmah, chiefly Dacoits, and a sprinkling of Cingalese. Upon arrival from India, each convict was checked with the warrants thataccompanied the several gangs, then photographed, bathed, and suppliedwith the prison clothing, and each received a number by which, until heentered the third class, he was always known. Each convict was then dulyinspected by the medical officer before admission to the wards. Anyproperty with them was scheduled and put away until they were entitledto receive it, and the clothing in which they arrived was dulyfumigated. The artificer body was drawn from the third and fourth classes only, andthey were subject to the same discipline as their classes in the generalprison. They were divided into four grades, according to the degree ofskill they evinced, and received a monthly allowance commencing at onehalf a rupee, or 1s. A month, up to the highest sum given to the bestworkmen of 10s. A month, who were called "tindal maistris, " and whowere entrusted with the duty of teaching beginners. These tindalmaistris were exempted from keeping watch in the wards at night. The several trades taught in the prison were as follows, and none ofthem were dangerous to health except the cement-sifting by females ontreadles, which had to be discontinued:-- Bricklayers and plasterers. Brick and tile makers and potters. Blacksmiths. Basket makers. Coopers. Carpenters, cement and lime burners. Gardeners. Painters. Lime and charcoal burners. Plumbers. Quarrymen. Sawyers, stone cutters, and blasters. Slaters. Shoe and sandal makers. Tailors. Turners and weavers. Wheelwrights. Woodcutters. Boatmen. Stone masons. [Illustration: CONVICT OF THE FIFTH CLASS, CONVICT OF THE FIFTH CLASS, SEC. A. _Plate XV. _] Those few of the convicts who had acquired a trade in their nativecountry were not admitted to the artificer gang until they had gonethrough their probationary period in irons on the public roads. The bulkof the convicts were trained in the prison itself; and after the year1857 native methods of working were abandoned, and the use of ourcarpenter's bench introduced, and English tools employed in all trades. They felled and stacked timber upon the island, which, after conveyanceto the yard, was sawn and wrought into all that was required for roofingtimbers, doors and window frames. They made the bricks, lime, andcement, and all tiles necessary for roofing or for paving. They quarriedthe stone at Pulo Obin for foundations, and for sea and river walls. Theblacksmiths cast and forged from the raw state all the iron work forwhich there was a necessity. As a matter of fact all material and alllabour for the execution of any public work required by the Governmentwere executed by these convicts, from a small timber bridge upon acountry road, even to the erection of a "cathedral" and "GovernmentHouse, " of which it is purposed further to give a detailed account. This is the proper place in which we may mention that in the years1859-60 the estimated value of this convict labour was 162, 230 rupees, while the expenses of the whole convict department amounted to 117, 578rupees. In 1860-61 the manufacture account showed a balance of 25, 028rupees in favour of the State, though profit was always deemed ofsecondary importance. Material was valued at one half the market rate, and the labour at two-thirds the value of the same labour prevailing inthe place. The hours of work were limited to nine, including the time taken inmarching to and fro from the works; but to add to discipline we wouldoccasionally give them some extra hours of work, answering somewhat toour "pipebrooms" in the Navy, or the "pipe-claying of belts" in our Armyon the line of march on active service. [Illustration: CHETOO, AN INCORRIGIBLE CONVICT OF THE FIFTH CLASS. _Plate XVA. _] The jail bell was rung at 5 a. M. (except Sunday), when every convictrose, rolled up his blanket with the number visible, and placed his"chadar" or sheet in his box, which was also numbered to correspond. Hewas marched out to the prison yard with the men of his ward, and theroll was called by the responsible officer. Time for light food wasallowed, and the convicts were then detailed to the work gangs asarranged overnight. The work gangs left the prison punctually at 6a. M. , and returned at 11 a. M. ; were marched out again at 1 p. M. , returning at 5 p. M. At 6 p. M. A roll was again called for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th classes, who were then locked up for the night. At 8 p. M. Therewas another roll call for those who had the privilege, and then all wereseen to their wards, and all wards and gates were locked by 9 p. M. , whenstrict silence reigned throughout the prison; the European warder goingrounds up to 10 p. M. , and occasionally, with the Superintendent and hisassistant, paying surprise night rounds. Convicts on the march out ofprison were moved five abreast, or as they called it "panch-panch, "literally, by "fives. " On the first of every month there was a general muster of the whole ofthe convicts, including the first class, when the roll was called, andeach answered to his name or number. This muster was always in thepresence of the Superintendent, who inspected each convict, and if anyone had a grievance his name was taken down, and his complaintafterwards inquired into at the "Inquiry Room. " This opportunity wastaken by the Superintendent to inspect the whole prison, wards, latrines, drains, and bathing places. The rations required for the jail were either obtained upon indent uponthe Government Commissariat Department, or by tender called for in thetown. Each convict's daily allowance was as follows:-- To 2nd, 3rd, Rice. Dholl Salt. Ghee, Vege- Fish. Mussalah and 6th classes or clari- tables. Or Curry without Peas. Fied Stuff. Condiments. Butter. oz. Oz. Drs. Drs. Oz. Oz. Drs. Effective men 32 5 8 8 -- -- 7¼ Invalids and 24 2 8 8 -- -- 7¼ Women To the fourth and fifth classes, being effective, with condiments, fishand vegetables alternating thus-- Rice. Dholl. Salt. Ghee. Vege- Fish. Mussalah tables. Or Curry Stuff. oz. Oz. Drs. Drs. Oz. Oz. Drs. Monday 28 5 1 10 5 -- 7¼ Tuesday 28 -- -- 10 -- 5 7¼ We found that this dietary scale was sufficient to a native under labourto repair waste tissue without giving fat. The "ghee, " or clarifiedbutter, made the rice more nutritious, and the "dholl, " or peas, contained both albumen and starch, which would of themselves alonesupport life. For the penal class there was the usual congee diet. All convicts not being in the first class, nor employed as messengers inhospitals or at public offices (when they received a compensation), wereclothed in the jail. The 2nd, 3rd, and 6th } half-yearly { Nine yards of stout grey classes } and { shirting. } duly marked { One suit. 4th and 5th classes } { Two working suits and a stout cap To all annually was given one blanket of coarse wool called a "kumblie, "and made by the convicts themselves from wool purchased in the place andprepared by them for the purpose. Belts and brass plates for them were supplied only to duffadars, tindals, peons, and orderlies. The European warders were dressed in a light blue serge loose coat withlace round the cap, and distinctive badge to indicate the grade, and inthe case of an overseer of artificers a hammer and chisel crossed. Afterthe reception in 1858-59 of a large number of mutineers they weresupplied with a belt and revolver. Chapter IX PUBLIC WORKS AND INDUSTRIES In referring to the variety of public works undertaken by these Indianconvicts, we have hitherto refrained from going into much detail inregard to them; but we think it will not be without interest to dwellsomewhat more at length, as we have proposed, upon the construction ofthe cathedral and the Government House, which still remain as records oftheir labour, and spring into the greatest prominence. Of the jailitself, which, as we have said, was planned and partially carried out bythe late General Man, nothing further need, we think, be added for it isnow dismantled except that it was in truth the training ground for theartificer gang under that able officer, who saw the absolute necessityof having some large public work in hand in order to the convictsacquiring a knowledge of the various trades. This principle in themanagement of convicts was advocated by Sir Edmund Du Cane in one of hispamphlets, in which he judiciously says that "the best system devisedfor the employment of convicts is that of executing large public worksby means of their labour. " [Illustration: CATHEDRAL, SINGAPORE. _Koch. _ _Plate XVI. _] As the late General Man had for this purpose the erection of thepermanent jail, so the late Colonel Macpherson planned and laid thefoundations for execution by their labour of St. Andrew's Church, nowthe cathedral of the diocese; while to Major McNair fell the duty ofdesigning and constructing almost wholly by these convicts the house forthe Governor of the colony. CATHEDRAL[10] (see Plate XVI. ). In preparing the designs of this ecclesiastical edifice, ColonelMacpherson had to select as simple and easy a form of architecture as hecould, and with as little ornament as possible, and therefore within thecapacity of his workpeople; so he chose the Gothic, or rather, we shouldsay, the Early English style of about the 12th century, and in so doinghe said he had somewhat reproduced the character of old NetleyAbbey. [11] He laid the foundations, and saw it built up to about threefeet above the ground, and then left for Malacca to take up theappointment of Chief Civil Officer there, and was therefore not ablefurther to see the progress of the work that he had inspired. His plans, however, were carefully followed by his successor, with the exception, as has already been said, of substituting a spire for a tower, owing toundue settlement at the tower end. This building is 250 feet longinternally, by 65 feet in width, with nave and side aisles; or, with thenorth and south transepts, 95 feet, the transepts being used asporticoes. The simple columns, with plain mouldings only, carriedarches, on which rested the side walls of the nave, which were run up ofsufficient height to clear the roofs of the aisles, and were perforatedby a range of windows to admit light to the whole building. At thenorth-east end of the nave was a great arch leading into a chancel, andan apse with three lancet windows in stained glass. The building wasroofed with teak timber, with a sarking of lighter wood as a lining toform a contrast, and then covered with slates imported from England. Over the main entrance is a vaulted dome, with a neat piece of groiningin granite, also made by the convicts. Leading to the organ loft is acircular well staircase, made from quarter-inch plate iron, the treadsand risers punched with holes by the punching machine in the work yardto render them lighter. They were bracketed together, and secured byscrew bolts and nuts. The risers were bent round a two-inch bar of roundiron, which passed down through all of them at the centre from top tobottom of the staircase. The whole was made and fixed in its place bythe convicts. [Footnote 10: Archdeacon and Chaplain, Ven. John Perham; } Choirmaster, Mr. C. B. Buckley; } 1899. Organist, Mr. E. Salzmann. } ] [Footnote 11: Colonel Macpherson had seen as a young man the ruins of the old church and abbey of Netley, or "Letley, " as it was originally called, from the Latin word "lætus, " pleasant, and the Saxon word "ley, " a field, and had been so impressed with the simple character and proportions of the Early English style of church architecture, of which this was an excellent example, that when called upon to plan a new church for Singapore, he, as we say, chose this as his model. We have a very good account of Netley Abbey given in 1848 by George Guillaume, architect, and from his description it was founded in 1239, and was occupied by monks of the Cistercian order, who were brought over from a neighbouring monastery at Beaulieu in the New Forest, where there was already an abbey dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Netley Church was built on a cruciform plan, and was proportioned according to the ancient mysterious figure called the "Visica Pisces, " as will be seen in the sketch below from his work. [Illustration: A Visica Pisces. ] Singapore Church, now, as we have said, the cathedral of the diocese, has been much admired for its true symmetry and exact proportion, as well as for the delicate simplicity of its details. ] As a pattern for the convicts to follow, we built two arches on theground, the exact counterpart of those in the building; and, indeed, atany time when they wanted a guide, we had a model made; and the nativesof India are such wonderful imitators, as we all know, that they soonwere able to follow the copy we had given them. So the work progressedfrom day to day, until it was ultimately finished in 1862. We found thatthe skill of the convicts never failed them, and their capacity asbuilders and carpenters never seemed to slacken. In dealing with the interior walls and columns, we used what is wellknown, though little employed with us in England, "Madras chunam, " madefrom shell lime without sand; but with this lime we had whites of eggsand coarse sugar, or "jaggery, " beaten together to form a sort of paste, and mixed with water in which the husks of cocoanuts had been steeped. The walls and columns were plastered with this composition, and, after acertain period for drying, were rubbed with rock crystal or roundedstone until they took a beautiful polish, being occasionally dusted withfine soapstone powder, and so leaving a remarkably smooth and glossysurface. We have given the dimensions of this building, but we may remark that, owing to the simplicity of its tracery and mouldings, it really appearsmuch larger than it actually is, and being built on an open space, itsproportions at once strike the eye of every visitor to the colony. A peal of bells was added to the cathedral in 1889 by the munificence ofMr. W. H. Read, C. M. G. , who, with the late Mr. John Crawfurd, Mr. JamesGuthrie, and others, was instrumental in bringing about the transferof these settlements to the Crown, and some of their portraits are nowin the Town Hall, including that of Mr. Thomas Scott, then M. L. C. [Illustration: MORTAR MILL, GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SINGAPORE. GOVERNMENT HOUSE GARDEN BEING LAID OUT BY CONVICTS. _Plate XVII. _] GOVERNMENT HOUSE (see Plate XIX. ). We have already mentioned that the transfer of the Straits Settlementsfrom the direct control of India to the Crown was effected on the 1stApril, 1867. The first Governor under the new _régime_ was Colonel SirHarry St. George Ord, R. E. , who, upon his arrival in Singapore, had totake up his abode in a hired house. He therefore lost no time in issuingorders to purchase land, and to erect a suitable residence for himselfand for the future Governors of the colony. Plans were accordinglycalled for from the colonial engineer (Major McNair), and they soon tookshape and were submitted by the Governor to the Legislative Councilwithout delay; and money was voted for the erection of the building, thepurchase of land, and the ordering of furniture from England. The workwas actually commenced within three months of the Governor's arrival, the foundation-stone was laid by Lady Ord a month later, and thebuilding was made ready for the reception of H. R. H. The Duke ofEdinburgh in October, 1869. The whole of the brick work, exterior plastering, and most of theflooring and interior work were effected by convict labour; but itbecame necessary, towards the last, to employ free labour, to assist inthe flooring, which was executed with battens from the steam sawmills atJohore, and also in the coffering of the ceilings in the drawing-roomand some plastering in the rear block. The whole of the bricks used weremade by the convicts, and much of the lime and cement was of theirmanufacture. The edifice stands upon a hill in the eastern suburb of the town, abouta mile and a quarter from the cathedral, and is surrounded by nearly 100acres of ground, which has been tastefully laid out, and planted withrare plants under successive Superintendents of the Government BotanicalGardens. The building commands an extensive view of the harbour andsurrounding country, and from the tower the distant islands and mainlandof Johore are distinctly visible. It is supplied with water from thetown water supply, [12] by the use of a hydraulic ram. It was firstlighted with gas, but now by the electric light throughout the wholebuilding. [Footnote 12: Also a work which we initiated and brought to completion on designs approved by the late Sir Robert Rawlinson, K. C. B. ] [Illustration: GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SINGAPORE, APPROACHING COMPLETION. _Plate XVIII. _] The house is built somewhat in the shape of a cross. Ascending a flightof broad steps from the wide portico, you enter a spacious entrance hallfloored with beautiful white marble from Java, having in your directfront a handsome stone staircase leading up through an arcade to ahalf-pace, from which it returns right and left to the lobby above, which is of the same dimensions as the entrance hall. Off this lobby, onthe eastern wing, is the library, and beyond, the principal bed anddressing-rooms, and an open verandah over the portico (since regrettablybuilt in). In the western wing is a double drawing-room, with disengagedpillars between; and below, off the entrance hall, on the east side, isthe ball-room, and on the west the dining hall and billiard-rooms. Store-rooms, pantries, and all necessary accommodation were supplied asin any of our home mansions. The ground floor of the building is raised four feet from the plateau, and ample ventilation is provided underneath. The building is 230 ft. Infrontage, and 180 ft. In depth, and the height to the tower is 80 ft. The style is Ionic upon Doric, with Corinthian pillars and pilasters tothe tower. It is roofed with slates, and the lower floors and verandahsare paved with marble. As at the cathedral training for the convicts, so here models of thepillars and capitals were made on the ground for them to copy, and thespecial bricks for mouldings, copings, architraves, and capitals weremade at the convict brick kilns. [13] The plaster work for the exteriorwalls was a subject of much consideration with us; and, after variousexperiments, we arrived at the following composition, and it hasthoroughly withstood the weather, which, under the trying circumstancesof a rapid succession of damp and heat, was exceptional in thatclimate:-- Portland cement 2 parts. } } Carefully and White selected sand 1 part. } slowly mixed } by the Granite powdered to } } convicts. Dust in small } 2 parts. } handmills, or } } querns } } [Footnote 13: All taught by ourselves to the convicts, with the assistance of Overseer Callcott, now risen to be Deputy Colonial Engineer. ] A gift by the Chinese community of a statue of H. M. The Queen wasunveiled with some ceremony at this Government House in the year 1889. INDUSTRIES (INTRA-MURAL). We have already enumerated the various trades that were taught to theseIndian convicts, and shall therefore confine our remarks here to a briefdescription of some of those productive occupations upon which weemployed their labour both within and without the main jail. We must, however, make known beforehand, in connection with intra-muralworks, that, attached to the main jail, yet distinctly separated from itby high walls and a guarded gateway, was a "work-yard, " in which werebuilt shops for carpenters, blacksmiths, coopers, wheelwrights, sawyers, stone-cutters, and turners in wood and iron. [Illustration: GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SINGAPORE, COMPLETED. _McNair. _ _Plate XIX. _] In one part of this yard was also a machine shop, in which were fittedlathes, punching and shearing machines, and a bolt and nut machine, alsoa band saw and a circular saw table. To drive this machinery a 12 h. P. Engine was used, and this was placed under the charge of a convict whohad been employed in the engine-room of a P. And O. Steamer, and hadgone through his probationary period in the jail. Added to thesemachines was one of Blake's stone-crushers to break stone of variousgauges for metalling the roads of the town. This was the first Indian jail, and we might even go so far as to say itwas amongst the first of any jails, where convicts were employed inconnection with steam power. We had, it is true, an engine to be workedby manual power, for six or eight men abreast, to drive the circularsaw, but it did not answer. It was intended as "crank" labour for theconvicts. When Dr. Mouat, the Inspector-General of Jails, Bengal, wrote his annualreport of 1864-65, he said: "I have suggested the introduction of steammachinery for the spinning of jute yarn, in order that all prisonerssentenced to rigorous imprisonment may never be without the hard labourwhich the jail is bound to provide for them. In this, as in most mattersconnected with the organization of prison industry, I have beenanticipated by the authorities at Singapore, there being a steamsaw-mill in use at the Singapore jail, and a pug-mill employed in thepreparation of the clay used in the brick and tile manufactory. " The carpenters made every necessary article required for the publicbuildings in progress; even the pulpit, reading-desk, and interiorfittings for the cathedral were the work of their hands. The blacksmithshad four smithies, and forged, cast, and prepared all kinds of ordinaryiron work found necessary. The coopers made buckets, tubs, and all thecasks for storing cement, and for other jail purposes. The wheelwrightsmade all the carts, barrows (hand and wheel), and the hack-barrowswanted at the brick kilns. The stone-cutters turned out the mouldings, mullions, capitals, cills, steps, and all that was essential in ourbuilding operations. Within the jail proper there were shops for tailors, weavers, rattanworkers, coir and rope makers, flag makers, a printing press, and aphotographic studio, and a few draughtsmen for executing plans andworking drawings. The tailors cut out, made, and repaired the clothingfor the fourth and fifth classes, and any other such occupation requiredin the prison. The weavers, who worked with an ordinary Indianhand-loom, made the coarse cloth required for those classes in irons, and washed, dressed, combed, carded, and spun the raw wool purchasedfrom the butchers in the town, from which the "kumblies" or coarseblankets supplied to all the convicts were made. The coir or yarnmanufactured from the husks of cocoanuts was prepared by those employedat "hard labour" in the refractory ward. From this yarn we made cordagefor the convict boats, mattresses for the hospitals, and matting ofvarious kinds. The flag makers made up and repaired the flags andcolours for the signal stations, and for the department of the masterattendant. Upon this work female convicts, and feeble men of the sixthclass, were usually employed. The printing press was established in 1860, and to start it the servicesof a Portuguese foreman printer were engaged for a short time to teachthe convicts; and bookbinding was added later on. Photography was taughtby one of us[14] to two intelligent convicts of the Calcutta Baboo classwho wrote English. All convicts had their likeness taken, and wereregistered for identification in case of escape; also local prisonersand men under custody by the police. We had not, of course, theknowledge then of Mr. Henry's method of identity by means of"finger-prints, " for it was only approved last year by the Government ofIndia. The draughtsmen, numbering three, executed all the plans andworking drawings for the public works. Those for the cathedral andGovernment House, and many other buildings, were drawn by these men, theprincipal draughtsman being a convict transported from Bombay of thename of Babajee. The rattan workers wrought chairs and baskets of allkinds, fenders for the Government steamers, and signal baskets for theflagstaff's. [Footnote 14: Major McNair, who himself supplied both apparatus and chemicals. ] There were other minor industries carried on within the prison walls, sothat it was a busy scene of task work from one end to the other, forevery one was engaged upon something, and there was no chance for anidler to do nothing. Nursing a job was quite out of the question. But we must pass on to deal with the industries beyond the walls, and weshall limit our description to the making of bricks, lime, and cement, and the quarrying of stone, and well digging. INDUSTRIES (EXTRA-MURAL). It will be quite superfluous to give an account in detail of the methodpursued in brick and tile making, for the process is known to every one. Suffice it to say that Colonel Faber, R. E. , as previously noted, was thefirst to introduce the manufacture on Government account; he opened aplace at Rochore, near the present gasworks, and employed free labour. The system was what is known as the "dry" and sand-moulding system, andthe bricks were burned in clamps. All that could be said of these brickswas that they were better than those made by the Chinese at that time, but they were not a success, and the manufacture was after two or threeyears given up. In 1858 we started, on a systematic principle, under a trained Europeanbrick maker, an extensive brick field on the Serangoon Road, about threemiles from the town, where there was a considerable bed of excellentclay for the purpose. The site, too, was well situated near the banks ofan inlet from the sea, and affording great facility for water carriage, and with a palm grove close at hand, under the shade of which theconvicts were allowed to roam without restraint when their work wasover. Sheds, kilns, pug-mills, moulding tables, and all the necessaryappliances for hand-made bricks were soon set on foot, and a largedormitory, surrounded by a stout precinct fence, was built for thenumber of convicts required for the manufacture, approximating to about120 of all classes, except those in irons. Our process was commonly known as "slop-moulding, " each moulder turningout from 2, 500 to 3, 000 bricks in the course of the day. After thesecond year, when the convicts had become accustomed to the work, and toadapt themselves to each other, we were able to supply all that wereneeded for the public works, and even to export them for works atMalacca. In tabulating the account of the value of their labour and theoutlay for fuel, and comparing it with the recognised value of thebricks, there was found to be a credit to the State in most years. (SeeAppendix No. 4. ) When, in 1867, there was an Agricultural Exhibition at Agra, in the N. W. Provinces of India, we sent up specimens of bricks, tiles, drain pipesof all sizes, and stable flooring bricks, manufactured by theseconvicts, for which the Superintendent gained the silver medal; and ifany further proof is needed of the excellent work turned out by theseconvicts, we may quote the report of the late Colonel Fraser, of theBengal Engineers, which ran as follows:-- "As an Engineer Officer of the D. P. W. , I have had a good deal of experience as regards the management of jails in India and Burmah, and have, of course, employed much convict labour, but I have never been in any jail where the arrangements are so perfect as in that of Singapore. While the discipline under which the convicts are held is obviously most efficient, the skill with which their labour is directed will be equally obvious to all who will take the trouble, as I have done, to go into the detail of their operations, and look at the results in the many large works which have been executed at Singapore. I went over the brick field with Captain McNair, and while I found that the greatest reasonable amount of work was got out of each man, I also found that the work turned out was the best I have seen in India. Where there are good bricks, other work is seen to be equally good, and when a proper amount of work is required per convict, then the discipline must be also good; I measured myself what the men were expected to do, and found it to be three cubic yards in eight hours. This is the full task of a European sapper in the same time. " Our lime and cement were made from coral, of which there were extensivereefs round the Island of Singapore, and some few "atolls" (a Cingaleseword), or special coral islands. Coral is almost a pure carbonate oflime, and therefore very well suited for the purpose. It was broken upand heated in kilns constructed for the purpose. The cement was madefrom this lime, and from selected clay, in the proportions we had bycareful experiments established, until we obtained a good andquick-setting article. It was made into small balls and then dried, andburnt in a special kiln, and afterwards well and finely ground andsifted by female convicts; its tensile strength was excellent. [Illustration: CONVICTS STONE-QUARRYING, AT PULO OBIN, SINGAPORE. _Plate XX. _] STONE QUARRYING (see Plate XX. ). The stone we used for all our building operations was procured from anisland between Singapore East and the mainland of Johore, and was namedPulo Obin. It is about three miles long and three-quarters of a milebroad. The stone was the best possible form of crystallised granite, fine grained, very compact and durable, grey in colour, with here andthere black patches or nodules of hornblende. It occurs in large flutedboulders, and was wrought by the convicts by fire, or by blasting withgun-powder, or split by pointed chisels and large hammers. Its weightwas 168 lbs. Per cubic foot. The excellent quality of this granite ledthe Government of India to approve of the construction by the lateColonel Eraser, C. B. , of several courses for the Alguada Reeflighthouse, which was built upon a dangerous reef off the coast ofBurmah. Our department looked after the preparation of some of thesecourses, and forwarded them by ship to Burmah. WELL DIGGING. It is known to everyone how capable the Indians are in the sinking ofwells, and that with many Orientals it is a work of great merit to buildone. As two were required for Fort Canning, we were soon able to selectmen fitted for this special work amongst the third class convicts, who, many of them, begged to be allowed to take part in their construction. After a careful set of borings, we came upon water at a depth of 180 and120 feet respectively. They were eventually dug out to these depths, andsteined to six feet in diameter by the use of sound and hard bricks fromthe convict kilns. The water rose to a height of 80 feet from thesurface of the ground, and they were provided with lift and force pumpsfor the convenience of the troops in garrison. It was a heavy job forthe convicts, but they performed it with eagerness and alacrity. Chapter X STORIES ABOUT INDIAN CONVICTS AND EUROPEAN LOCAL PRISONERS No. 1 Most of the convicts sentenced to the Straits Settlements for shortperiods of transportation were, as we have said, usually retained in theconvict jail at Malacca. Amongst these, in the sixties, was a veryremarkable man, and known to both of us, of the name of "Tickery Banda, "who was a native of Ceylon, and had received a sentence of seven yearsin transportation for a crime committed in that island, though of whichhe declared, like many of his congeners, he was perfectly innocent. A story in connection with this man is given in Cameron's _TropicalPossessions in Malayan India_, which is quite worthy of repetition here. When the English took possession of Kandy, Tickery Banda and two orthree brothers, children of the first minister of the King of theKandians, were taken and educated in English by the then Governor of theisland. Tickery afterwards became manager of some coffee plantations, and was so employed on the arrival of a Siamese mission of priests in1845, who came to see Buddha's tooth. It seems that he met the missionreturning disconsolate, having spent some 5, 000 rupees in presents andbribes in a vain endeavour to obtain a sight of the relic. Tickerylearned their whole story, and at once ordered them to unload theircarts and wait for three days longer, and that he would in due timeobtain for them the desired view of the holy tooth. He had a cheque on abank for £200 in his hands at the time, and this he offered to leavewith the priests as a guarantee that he would fulfil his promise. He didnot say whether the cheque was his own or his master's, or whether itwas handed over or not; perhaps it was this cheque for themisappropriation of which he found his way to the convict lines ofMalacca. The Siamese priests accepted his undertaking and unloaded theirbaggage, agreeing to wait for the three days. Tickery immediately placedhimself in communication with the then Governor, and represented, as hesays, forcibly, the impositions that must have been practised upon theKing of Siam's holy mission, when they had expended all their gifts andhad not yet obtained the desired view of the tooth. The Governor, who, Tickery says, was a great friend of his, appreciated the hardships ofthe priests, and agreed that the relic should be shown to them with aslittle delay as possible. It happened, however, that the keys of thetemple where the relic was preserved were in the keeping of the thenResident Councillor, who was away some eight miles elephant shooting. But this difficulty was not long allowed to remain in the way, forTickery immediately suggested that it was very improbable that theResident Councillor would have included these keys in his hunting kit, and insisted that they must be in the Councillor's house. He thereforeasked the Governor's leave to call upon Mrs. ----, the ResidentCouncillor's wife, and, presenting the Governor's compliments, torequest that a search be made for the keys. Tickery was deputedaccordingly, and by dint of his characteristic tact and force oflanguage, carried the keys triumphantly to the Governor. The Kandy priests were immediately notified that their presence wasdesired, as it was intended to exhibit the great relic, and that theirguardian officer would be necessary. Accordingly, on the third day, thetemple was opened, and in the building the Siamese priests andworshippers were assembled, with Tickery on the one side, and the Kandyor guardian priests on the other side, with the Governor and theRecorder in the centre. After making all due offerings to the tooth of the great Buddha, theSiamese head priest, who had brought a golden jar filled with otto ofroses, desired to have a small piece of cotton with some of the ottorubbed on the tooth, and then passed into the golden jar, thereby toconsecrate the whole of the contents. To this process the Kandy priestsobjected, as being a liberty too great to be extended to foreigners. TheSiamese priests, however, persisted in their request; and the Governorand Recorder, not knowing the cause of the altercation, asked Tickery toexplain. Tickery, who had fairly espoused the cause of the Siamese, though knowing that in their request they had exceeded all precedent, resolved quietly to gratify their wish; so, in answer to the Governor'sinterrogatory, he took from the hands of the Siamese head priest a smallpiece of cotton and the golden jar of the volatile oil. "This is whatthey want, your Honour: they want to take this small piece of cotton, so--; and having dipped it in this oil, so--, they wish to rub it on thesacred tooth, so--; and having done this, to return it to the goldenjar, so; thereby, your Honour, to consecrate the whole of the contentsof the golden jar. " All the words of Tickery were accompanied by the corresponding action, and of course the desired ceremony had been performed in affordingexplanation. The whole thing was the work of a moment, and the Governorand Recorder did not know how to interfere in time, though they knewalso that such a proceeding was against all precedent. The Kandy priestswere quite taken aback, while the Siamese priests, having obtained theirdesired object, took from Tickery Banda's hands the now consecratedgolden jar with every demonstration of fervent gratitude. The Kandypriests were, however, loud in their indignation, and subsequently theGovernor, patting Tickery on the back, said, "You have indeed settledthe question, and it is a pity you were not born in the precincts of St. James', for you would have made a splendid political agent. " The next morning Tickery received a douceur of 1, 000 rupees from theSiamese priests, and has ever since been held in the highest esteem andrespect by the King of Siam and his Buddhist priests, being consideredquite a holy man, while periodically the King of Siam sends himsubstantial tokens of the Royal favour. * * * * * No. 2 It was remarkable what a wide difference there was between the accountsgiven by the convicts themselves, of the circumstances which were thecause of their transportation, and the summary of them given in thewarrants sent with them. Although many of them did not deny havingcommitted what the law looked upon as a crime, they, under thecircumstances, either considered that the act was justifiable, orperhaps that it was the result of accident. Here is the case of aconvict who was sentenced to transportation for life for murder, givenas related by himself. * * * "In my Madras native village, I 'Rudrapah' was a planter (ryot). I waspossessed of several large paddy fields; some were near my house andothers were far off. At a little distance from my house a friend of minelived, 'Allagappen' by name. He also was a ryot, and possessed of paddyfields. He often came to eat rice with me, and I often went to hishouse; we were like brothers. At a village about six miles away, therelived a man who was a breeder of cattle. He and his wife were verypartial to me, and it was arranged between us that I should marry theirdaughter when she was old enough--she was then eleven years of age. Allwent well for two years, and then I was married to the girl and took herto my house. My friend, 'Allagappen, ' used to come and visit us and eatrice as before. Things went on very well for five or six years: my wifeand I were very happy together, and never quarrelled; we had only onechild. Having saved some money, I bought a bandy (a country vehicle) anda pair of bulls, and used to hire them to any one travelling. Sometimesmy bandy would be engaged for a long journey, and I would be away frommy house for two or three days together, leaving my wife and childalone. But now my trouble began. About six months after I bought mybulls, one of them got sick and died. I had not then enough money to buyanother, and was on the point of selling the bandy and remaining bull, when my wife proposed that we should ask her father to help us, as hehad plenty of bulls. I had not thought of this, and I said, 'Verygood. ' We went and saw my father-in-law, and he agreed to let me have abull and pay for it as I earned money. Soon after that I hired my bandyto a man to go to a town thirty miles away, expecting to be away somedays. I left my wife and child under the charge of a neighbour and hiswife, who promised to look after them. I and the man who hired my bandyset out early in the morning, and reached the town about mid-day nextday. In the evening the man told me he was going to stay many days inthe town, and I could return to my house. He paid me, and I bought somethings I wanted. Early next morning, at daybreak, I set out on myjourney back to my village, and arrived there about 3 o'clock the nextmorning; and after seeing to my bulls I went to my house and to mysurprise found the door unfastened. I entered without making any noise, not knowing what could be the reason the door was not fastened. I wentquickly into my sleeping place, and there I saw my wife laying asleep, and beside her was a man also asleep. On going close up to him that Imight see who it was, to my great sorrow I found that it was my friend, 'Allagappen. ' It was my great misfortune that I had in my hands agranite stone, or sort of muller, for grinding massalah (curry stuff)which I had bought, and being so angered with my friend, and so overcomewith grief at finding my wife to be false, it made me tremble so muchthat I let the stone fall from my hands, and quite unintentionally itdropped on 'Allagappen's' head, and the stone being heavy it broke hisskull and killed him on the spot. My wife woke up, and seeing me, shescreamed and ran away from the house. She went to the neighbours' housein whose charge I had left her. I followed her, and told them what I haddone: that morning I was taken by the police and locked up, and afterthat I saw my house no more. I was tried by an English judge, and wassentenced to be sent away from my country for as long as I lived: suchwas my misfortune. " * * * Here the tears came into the old criminal's eyes, and it was veryevident that there was still a soft place in his heart, showing a signof reclamation in spite of his convict life. This convict was pardonedafter serving twenty-five years. * * * * * No. 3 As late as the year 1863 piracy had not been wholly suppressed in theStraits of Malacca, and cases were by no means rare of native tradingcraft being attacked by them. During this year a number of piraticalboats infested the mouths of the rivers Prye, Juroo, and Junjong on theMalay Peninsula, and the South Channel between Penang Island and themainland of Province Wellesley; and many a tongkong belonging to Chinesetraders between Penang and Laroot was attacked by them and plundered, and sometimes the crews were murdered. Some of these pirates were in the habit of going about in Penang andquietly ascertaining what tongkongs were about to sail, and allparticulars in regard to their cargo, crew, and so forth. Two of themhaving discovered that a tongkong owned and manned by Chinese was aboutto leave Penang for Laroot with some valuable cargo and $2, 000 of specieon board, disguised themselves as "hadjis, " or Mohammedan pilgrims, andengaged a passage in her. They arranged with some of their confederatesto have a prahu, or fast sailing boat, at a certain place off the JurooRiver, and when the tongkong in which they were passengers reached thisspot a signal was to be given, and the prahu was to run alongside thetongkong; and after plundering her and gagging the crew, the piratesintended sinking the tongkong and making off in the prahu. They carriedtheir villainous scheme into execution, but meeting with stouterresistance from the crew of the tongkong than they had anticipated, theykilled, as they thought, every man on board, and were preparing toscuttle the tong-kong, when a boat containing Indian convicts, andemployed in carrying coral for the Government lime kilns, and which, unperceived by the pirates, had been rapidly approaching, came alongsidethe tongkong, having been attracted by the yells and cries of thevictims. The pirates, recognizing that they were convicts, immediatelygot into their prahu, and made sail as fast as they could; and she, being a very fast sailer, was soon out of sight. The convict tindal incharge of the boat, with one or two convict boatmen, went on board thetongkong and found all the crew and passengers dead; but fancying theyheard groans they searched round the tongkong, and at last found one ofthe Chinese boatmen clinging to the rudder. They lifted him on board, and found that he was severely cut about, and covered with wounds. Theconvict tindal in charge of the Government boat then shaped his course, with the tongkong in tow, for Butterworth, in Province Wellesley, whichthey reached early in the morning. The wounded Chinaman was taken to thehospital, a report was made to the police of the pirates' attack, andthe tongkong was handed over to their charge. From the description ofthe prahu given by the convict tindal, and the information gathered fromthe Chinaman when he was able to talk, the police were enabled to tracethe prahu to Sunghie Rambay, where the pirates were arrested. The casewas tried at the Supreme Court, Penang; some of the pirates were hanged, and the rest sentenced to penal servitude. The tindal of the Governmentboat and the convict boatmen were highly commended by the judge fortheir conduct, and were otherwise rewarded by the authorities. * * * * * No. 4 We have referred elsewhere to the numerous races of India which went toform the convict body in the old Singapore jail. We found this admixtureof castes and tribes a very valuable corrective against a possiblechance of insurrection, and for the discovery of plots of escape; and, indeed, sometimes as a means of finding out any serious mischief thatmight be brewing in the jail. It seems to delight many a native of India to be a spy upon another; andthough intrigues were never encouraged, nor as a rule listened to, yetnow and again an informer would appear when the matter was of sufficientimportance to be reported to the authorities. As an instance of this it may be recorded that on one occasion there wasa dispute between two Sikhs, one of the "Ramdasee" and the other of the"Mazahbee" sect; and as they went from high words to blows they wereplaced in confinement and brought before the Superintendent[15] in theInquiry room. After full investigation into the matter, the "Mazahbee"Sikh was proved to have been the instigator of the quarrel, and he waspunished. The whole of his sect appear to have resented this judgment, and determined amongst themselves to be avenged, and to inflict somepain or injury upon the Superintendent. They began to plot and to schemeas to the best way to carry out their design; and this plotting was notlost on the observation of a clever Parsee convict, who, having tradedin Northern India, knew their language. He watched them closely, and haddecided when their plans were matured to inform the authorities. [Footnote 15: Major McNair. ] The scheme was only ripe for execution, however, on the very morning ofthe muster, so that there was no time for the Parsee convict to acquaintthe chief warder; and as a last resource, therefore, he made up his mindto inform the Superintendent at the muster as to what was in store forhim. Creeping stealthily along the rear of the standing men, he timedthe arrival of the Superintendent going down the front on hisinspection; and, stooping down, he thrust his head between the legs ofthe front rank men, and level with the ground, calling out only loudenough for the Superintendent to hear, "Khabardar sahib Sikh kepastamancha hai"--"Look out, sir; a Sikh has a pistol. " The Superintendenttook no notice of the warning until he had passed to about the middle ofthat line, then he ordered the chief warder to take a dozen of the Sikhswho were standing at the end of the line, and move them off into theirward that he might inspect their boxes, and he added, "Search themthoroughly. " As the Superintendent passed the end of the line, and was about toinspect another line at right angles to it, no shot had been fired; sohe concluded that it was either a false alarm, or that the miscreant wasamongst the dozen men in the ward. And so it proved; for shortlyafterwards, the chief warder came to report that he had found a loadedpistol on the person of one of the Sikh convicts, and had placed him ina cell to await investigation. After the muster an inquiry accordingly took place, and it turned outthat a fellow-tribesman had managed to pass the main gate with a pistolsecreted about his person, and had handed it to the man to whom the lothad fallen to do the deed. The would-be assassin was sentenced to heavy irons, and placed in therefractory ward. The gang was eventually broken up, the ringleadersbeing transferred to Penang, and the remainder kept in Singapore underclose observation. The Parsee convict, who checkmated the conspirators, was advanced from the third to the second class, and otherwise rewarded. The design on the life of the late Colonel Macpherson, the immediatepredecessor of the above, was also similarly frustrated by anotherParsee, who, on the evening before muster, observed a man burying aknife in the sandy ground near which he had to stand for inspection. Waiting his opportunity, he proceeded to the spot and withdrew the bladefrom the knife, and replaced the handle just above the ground as he hadfound it. When Colonel Macpherson passed the man on the morrow hequickly seized the handle from the ground to make his stab, but only tofind that he was unexpectedly baulked in his villainous attempt to killhis Superintendent. * * * * * No. 5 "FUNNY JOE" His surname need not be mentioned, but he went by the name of "FunnyJoe. " He was the son of a clergyman of the Church of England, sharpwitted, and well educated; but his moral character, from some cause oranother, became quite disorganised, and to the grief of his parents heleft his home and took to the sea. His education there stood him in goodstead, and under new surroundings he improved for the time, andeventually rose to be chief mate of a ship. Had he persevered in thisgood course, he would in all probability have succeeded well in themercantile service; but events proved otherwise, and on his secondvoyage as mate he was, he said, wrongfully charged as being bothinsolent and insubordinate to his commander, and on the arrival of thevessel at the Cape of Good Hope he was discharged. Left with but smallmeans, and, to him, almost on foreign soil, he bethought himself of someexpedient for making money; so, getting hold of a sailor loafing at theport, he talked matters over with him, and they decided upon clubbingtheir resources, hiring a hall, and circulating posters that on acertain night at "so much, " and "so much" for entrance, a man might beseen "walking on the ceiling like a fly. " On the night advertised thehall was crowded. "Funny Joe" then went to his companion, who wascollecting the money, and took from him the amount he had received, andtold him he might have all the rest that he could collect. He (FunnyJoe) then decamped, and was never heard of more in Cape Town. He wasnext at Rangoon, where he got into the same plight for want of funds;but his mother wit came to his aid again, and this time he posed beforethe public as a naturalist who had discovered off the coast what hepronounced could be nothing else than a "mermaid, " and for theexhibition of this marine creature, which he had cleverly constructedfrom the head and breast of an ape and half the body of a fish, heobtained a good round sum. We hear of him next at Singapore, where healso advertised his "mermaid" as being on exhibition at a certainboarding establishment. There, however, the "mermaid" did not succeed, and his funds being exhausted he possessed himself of a watch and somecash, the property of the people of the house with whom he lodged, andfor which he was sent to jail. Here he came under some strict disciplineand good wholesome advice, and it was in the Singapore jail that he toldthe story of his life as given above. When the term of his sentence had expired, and he was about to bedischarged, he warmly thanked the Superintendent for his counsel, anddeclared very positively that he intended to turn over a new leaf. We believe that he did so; at all events, the last heard of him was thathe had signed articles as mate of a ship; and he scrupulously returnedto the Superintendent (Major McNair) the money he had advanced to himfrom his private purse to make a new start in life. * * * * * No. 6 CONVICTS WITH A COBRA AND A CROCODILE It is well known that the Cobra di Capello is one of the most deadly ofthe snakes of India and the East. The palish yellow cobra of India isperhaps more dangerous and surely fatal in its bite than the black"cobra" or "kala samp, " which is more frequently found in the StraitsSettlements, but neither of them is very pleasant to be in closeproximity to. _The Cobra. _--As we have noticed elsewhere, some of the convicts werevery expert in catching these reptiles and extracting their fangs. Thefollowing personal incident is given by a public works officer:-- "When the new cantonments were in progress at Tanglin I was placed in charge of the works by Col. G. C. Collyer, R. E. , the then Chief Engineer of the Straits Settlements, and was permitted to occupy a part of a large house on the estate. The bath rooms were on the ground floor, and stairs from the bedrooms above led down to them. One morning, just as I was sitting down to breakfast, my convict orderly came running to me and said that a large 'cobra' had crawled up the drain leading from the main drain at the back of the house to the bath room. We went immediately to the bath room, and, finding that the snake had not made his appearance inside, I stopped up the opening into the drain with a towel, and the convict orderly, who had gone round to the outer end of the drain, began pushing a long bamboo up it. This drove the snake to the upper end. The convict, then, with a pickaxe, loosened a brick from the covering of the drain close to the wall of the house, while I stirred up the bamboo rod. The convict then gently and by degrees removed the brick, and in an instant the snake emerged fully from the drain, raising its hood and hissing at us. It then retreated back to the drain, when the convict dexterously seized it by the tail, and, drawing it out, held it tight by the neck. The convict then teased the snake with his coarse flannel 'kumblie, ' or blanket, and it struck at it several times with its fangs; when, with a sudden jerk, the convict drew out the fangs in the blanket, and the snake became perfectly harmless. "The snake was afterwards sent on board H. M. Surveying schooner _Saracen_, and getting loose on board was summarily destroyed, for none on board had been told that its fangs had been removed. " _The Crocodile. _--Govindhoo, a convict employed at the Pulo Obin stonequarries, was admitted into hospital with a lacerated leg, the footbeing almost severed from the body. He was visited by one of us, andtold his story as follows:-- "I was walking along the sea beach close to the water, when I was suddenly seized from behind, and I at once saw that I was in the jaws of a crocodile. I had nothing in my hand but my 'roomal, ' or handkerchief, with my keys tied in one corner. I hit at his head with this, but it was of no use, and finding myself being dragged into deeper water, I suddenly thought I could dig out both his eyes, [16] and I did it, and very shortly afterwards he let me go, and I half swam, half paddled back to the shore. " The convict's leg had to be amputated. [Footnote 16: Literally gouged the animal. ] The Malays say that there are three descriptions of crocodiles, or, as they call them, "buaya. " The first is the "katak" or frog crocodile, the second the "labu" or gourd crocodile, and the third is the "tumbaga" or copper crocodile. The frog crocodile is the most active, and we have often been told by Malay boatmen, when going up a river, to keep our hands and shoulders well within the boat, for fear of their sudden attack. There are, however, known to our naturalists a dozen or more different forms of the crocodile proper, and it is said that they have been found up to thirty feet in length; but from eighteen feet to twenty feet is the longest found in the Straits of Malacca. They may often be seen in the Malay rivers, and on the coast, floating in the water, with the snout well above the surface, on the look out for prey. * * * * * No. 7 The Chinese have one superstition amongst many in regard to tigers. Theybelieve that when a person is killed by a tiger his "hantu, " or ghost, becomes the slave of the beast and attends upon it; that the spirit actsthe part of a jackal, as it were, and leads the tiger to his prey; andso thoroughly subservient does the ghost become to his tigerish master, that he not infrequently brings the tiger to the presence of his wifeand family, and calmly sees them devoured before his ghostly face. A very ingenious tiger trap was invented by Mr. Frank Shaw, of Caledoniasugar estate, in Province Wellesley, which is worth describing. It wasconstructed at the foot of a small hill, about a mile away from theestate, where there was a considerable area of secondary jungle andgigantic bracken fern, a favourite resort of tigers. A trench, aboutfour or five feet wide, was opened in the sloping ground for a distanceof ten or twelve feet; stout stakes were driven in the trench close tothe sides, projecting some three or four feet above the ground, forabout two-thirds the length of the trench; the remaining one-third atthe upper end was converted into a strong cage, or pen. This pencommunicated with the other part of the trench by an opening in which agate in two flaps was fitted; a heavy cover, weighing ten or twelve cwt, of round logs was made to fit the open part of the trench, and soarranged in an inclined position, and connected by triggers with the twoflaps, that any attempt to open the latter released the upper end of theheavy cover and allowed it to fall down in the trench. A couple of goatswere tied at the far end of the pen as a bait, and were kept thereconstantly, food being taken to them by a convict coolie. After the traphad been set for some time, the coolie who fed the goats came running tothe house one day with the news that a tiger was caught in the trap. Ofcourse every one set out immediately to secure the animal. The tiger hadevidently tried to push in between the two flaps to get at the goats:this released the triggers, and the jerk and movement of the cover hadevidently alarmed the animal, who tried to back out; but the weight andforce of the falling cover on its back had pressed the beast down flaton the ground and rendered him powerless. The difficulty now was todispatch the tiger. Only its hind quarters could be seen; and a revolvershot was fired into the body. After a while the cover was raised alittle, and a bullet in the brain finished the work. The cover was thenentirely removed, and the carcase taken out of the trap; the fore andhind feet were tied together, and it was slung on a pole in the usualway, eight Kling convict coolies lifted the load and started for thesugar mills. They, however, soon got tired. Half a dozen more convicts, who were at work on the road, were then called in to assist, and at lastthey reached their journey's end. On arrival at the sugar mills it was skinned, the skin becoming theproperty of the manager, and the natives disposed of the flesh. Theanimal proved to be a tigress, and evidently had young cubs, as she hada quantity of milk. This the Chinese coolies were very eager to secure, as it is by them considered to be a valuable medicine. We never heardwhether any more tigers were caught in this trap. The ordinary method, however, adopted for catching tigers is by means ofpits, which are dug from twelve to fifteen feet in depth, and somewhatpyramidal in form. Sometimes pointed stakes are fixed in the bottom ofthe pit. The mouth is covered over with light brushwood, and whenconvenient, a tree is felled and laid a few feet from it across thetiger's track, so that the animal in leaping off the tree adds impetusto his own weight in falling into the trap. The trouble of digging these pits is not so slight as might besupposed, as the construction of a pit in the proper manner fullyoccupies a couple of convicts a fortnight, besides the risk of beinginterrupted in their labour by the tiger happening to encounter them, and, naturally enough, on finding the work they were engaged upon, testifying his displeasure at the treachery they were meditating againsthim by making a meal of them. An Indian sportsman wrote to the _Singapore Free Press_, at the timewhen so many Chinese were being destroyed at Singapore, saying:-- "I have been accustomed to tiger hunting in India, but the same mode could not be adopted here, the jungle being of a different character. Indeed, the only plan which is likely to be attended with success is by setting traps; and it is to be regretted that the local Government did not long since take some pains to prove this to the cultivators. Had this been done, many lives might have been spared. " The Chinese were evidently delighted at the interest shown by the European gentlemen on the last occasion, and it is to be hoped that they will exert themselves to rid the island of tigers by this means. While the ravages of tigers were destructive of human life on land, crocodiles were almost equally as mischievous on the coast and in therivers, and many Chinese and other natives fell a prey to theirvoracity. Sometimes bathers were attacked; at other times fishermen, shrimp catchers, and oyster divers were carried off or attacked by them. Some crocodiles, like some tigers, have a peculiar partiality to humanflesh, and often display remarkable ingenuity in gratifying theirappetites. Regular man-eater crocodiles existed in some of the rivers inthe Straits Settlements, notably in the rivers in Province Wellesley;but many were found also in the rivers in Singapore and Malacca, as wellas on the sea coast. Some of these man-eaters were very bold, and wouldattack natives in their canoes, sometimes getting under the canoe andupsetting it in order to devour the occupants. Cases have been known ofpersons being snatched out of boats. A case of this kind happened in thePrye River, in Province Wellesley. The supervisor in charge of thepublic works was proceeding in a ferry boat with some convicts to repairthe boundary pillar, situated some distance up the river, when suddenlya splash was heard, and his convict orderly, who was squatting in thebow of the sampan, or boat, uttering a cry, stood up, at the same timepointing to the stern of the boat. Upon looking round, a Chinaman, whohad been seated in the stern of the boat, was found to be missing. Acrocodile had, as it were, shot up out of the water, and, seizing theChinaman by the waist, had drawn him down into the river, and nothingmore was seen of them at the time. Shortly afterwards, a canoe with aMalay man and his wife in it was upset near the same spot by acrocodile, and both of them disappeared. A little later a Kling, who hadbeen in the habit of diving for mud oysters near Qualla Prye Ferry formany years, and had repeatedly been cautioned about his danger in doingso, was missed, and it was ascertained that he had been seen diving foroysters as usual, and had suddenly disappeared, and had not been seen tocome up again. This sort of thing went on for some time, and the crocodiles could notbe caught. At last the convicts stationed at Prye town convict linessucceeded in capturing a large crocodile, and this is how they managedit. They prepared a bait by tying a strong hook underneath the body of apariah dog. One end of a piece of light iron chain[17] was fastened tothis hook; the other end was fastened to a log of very light wood as abuoy. They then went in a boat to that part of the river where thegreater number of casualties had occurred. Here they drifted about, atthe same time pinching the dog's ears and otherwise tormenting him tomake him yelp. After watching the surface of the water for some time, they descried the V mark on the water indicating the approach of acrocodile; then, throwing the dog and buoy overboard, they pulled awayfor some distance to watch the result. . They saw the crocodile rapidlyapproaching the dog, who was swimming for his life. Suddenly there was ahowl, and the dog disappeared. Then they watched the buoy, which wouldsometimes disappear under the water and then rise again to the surface;and in this manner they traced the crocodile, and followed him into asmall creek, where he crawled on shore; and there they dispatched himwith musket balls. This crocodile measured fourteen feet from the tip ofhis nose to the end of his tail, and was said to be the largest specimencaptured at that time, but they have been known to reach from eighteento twenty feet in length. Upon opening him a human leg and a pair ofChinaman's trousers were discovered, and it was concluded that this wasone of the man-eaters. [Footnote 17: Shreds of tough rope are better. ] As an illustration of the effect of shock upon the human system at thesight of wild beasts, we may mention a case of a Malay fisherman who wasshrimping on the bar at the mouth of the Krian River (ProvinceWellesley), when a crocodile approached him from behind and seized himby the thigh. The Malay drew his parang and hacked away at thecreature's nose until he let go. Some convicts stationed at Nebong Tubaland a Malay police peon saw what was happening and put off in a boat tohis assistance. They rescued the poor fellow, and the police conveyedhim at once by boat to the hospital at Butterworth, where his wounds, which were not very serious, were attended to; but the shock to thenervous system was so great that the man lost his reason, and wouldconstantly leave his cot and walk down the hospital ward, moving hishands up and down, as if in the act of shrimping. He died shortlyafter. A similar case of shock, and a well-known story in the StraitsSettlements, occurred in Province Wellesley, but this was from a tiger. A Roman Catholic priest was returning to his house after breakfastingwith a planter at Alma, and when passing through some tall "lalang"grass a tiger suddenly sprang out into the path a few yards in front ofhim. The priest, with great presence of mind, suddenly opened hisChinese umbrella in the face of the tiger; the animal gave a leap roundto one side, and the priest repeated the umbrella movement. The tigerthen gave another leap round to the other side, and the umbrella actionwas again performed. This was renewed till the tiger, who evidently wasnot hungry, and had taken alarm, made a disappointed growl and boundedaway into the high lalang grass, and the priest hastened on his wayhome. On reaching his house he took a cold bath, to brace up his nervesas he said; but the next day he was confined to his bed, and died afortnight after the event, due entirely, it was said, to the shock thathe had sustained. * * * * * No. 8 As we have already intimated, the house of correction at Singapore wasunder the management and control of the Convict Department; and therewere frequently from thirty to forty Europeans confined in this prison, chiefly seamen on short sentences for neglect of duty on board ship. When Sir Robert McClure was commanding a vessel of war[18] in Chinesewaters about 1859, his ship was on the Singapore station for some littletime; and upon his arrival he sent in to the house of correction a veryincorrigible man-of-war's man named John ---- (we will not give hissurname, for he may be yet alive). This man had been several timespunished while the ship was in China, and had been twice sentenced to beflogged. We heard all about him from the officer of the ship who hadbrought him ashore. [Footnote 18: H. M. S. Esk. ] His sentence was three weeks' imprisonment: the first week in solitaryconfinement on bread and water, and congee or rice gruel diet. Upon hisreceipt into the prison, after the usual routine, he was placed in oneof the penal cells, and bread and water set before him. Before the celldoor was closed, he looked hard at the chief warder, saying, "Take awaythat filth; I won't eat it. " The chief warder reported to theSuperintendent that the man in the cells was a dangerous-lookingcharacter, and he was afraid we should have trouble with him, for he hadnever seen a man with such a hang-dog look. The morning of the secondday he had touched neither bread nor water, though fresh had been givenhim, and in a churlish manner he said to the chief warder, who hadremonstrated with him, "I'll eat the tail of my shirt first, before Ieat what you bring me. " The doctor visited him, and made his report tothe Superintendent that he was a strong man, and in excellent health, and that he might be safely left until hunger obliged him to eat, butthat he would see him twice a day. Upon the afternoon of the second day the Superintendent himself, uponhis inspecting the prisoners in the penal cells, entered this prisoner'scell, and the following dialogue ensued: "What is your name?" "What isthat to you?" "But I am the Superintendent of this jail, and I ask you asimple question, and I want a simple answer. " Then looking at theSuperintendent with a disrespectful air the prisoner said, "Look at mywarrant if you want to know it. " "But I want to hear it from yourself. ""Well, if it is any satisfaction to you, my name is John ----" TheSuperintendent then said, "Now I want to know what part of England youcome from. " "Well, what do you want to know that for? but I say again, if it is any satisfaction to you, I come from Saltash. " "So you are aCornishman, are you?" replied the Superintendent. "I know Saltash verywell. It is a fine old place. And I know the Viaduct, and the cottagesover against it. I wonder if you were born there in one of thosecottages? Perhaps you were, and have a mother now living there; and ifyou have, and she knew that her son was now in an Indian jail, youwould break that old woman's heart, that you would. " This ended theconversation, and the cell door was shut. Late in the evening the chief warder sent a special messenger to theSuperintendent's quarters, asking him to visit the prison beforenightfall, for the prisoner in the cells from the man-of-war in theharbour had something to communicate. So before it was yet very dark theSuperintendent went down, and the cell door being opened, and thebull's-eye lantern turned upon the man, the Superintendent at oncenoticed a change in the countenance of his prisoner, for the reckless, devil-may-care expression had shifted, and as if by some good influencewithin. "Well, you sent for me, and I have come; what do you want?" saidthe Superintendent. Then in a faltering voice, and with tears in hiseyes, the prisoner said, "I only want to say, sir, before I go to sleep, that you are the first man that has ever overcome me, for you spoke tome of my 'mother'; and now, sir, you can do anything you like with me, and I'll carry out my sentence properly, and go back aboard my ship anddo my duty as a British sailor ought to do. " And he did; and after his release went in the ship on to Bombay, fromwhence the Superintendent heard from Sir Robert McClure that John ----was as well behaved a man as he had on board, and that the treatmenthe had received in the Singapore jail had quite altered his nature, andhe would like to know the prescription for it. Very often, when a long course of positive punishment has ceased to haveits effect, a contrary treatment may lead to quite a change in thecharacter, and if anything will touch the heart of a vicious Briton, itis to bring him to think upon the early counsels of a godly mother. Chapter XI ABOLITION OF THE CONVICT DEPARTMENT AND DISPOSAL OF THE CONVICTS On the separation of the Straits Settlements from British India in 1867, it was arranged that the Indian life convicts at Singapore should betransferred to Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. In the course ofcorrespondence which took place on the subject, His Excellency theGovernor of the Straits Settlements proposed, in respect of thoseconvicts who were to continue in the Straits, that a liberal use of thepower of pardon should be made in the case of such convicts, the natureof whose crimes and whose subsequent character warranted it. The Government of India agreed to this proposal, with the proviso thatpardon should be conditional on convicts not returning to India, or inthe case of Burmese to Burmah, without the special sanction in each caseof the Government of India; and that this sanction would not be given inany cases in which the crime was "Thuggee" or "Dacoity, " or robbery byadministering poisonous drugs, or other form of organized crime, or inthe case of mutiny or rebellion accompanied with murder. Accordingly, the Straits Government authorities submitted lists ofconvicts whom they recommended for pardon. After consulting the localgovernments concerned, the Government of India issued orders in eachcase, authorizing the release and return to India of some of theconvicts, granting conditional pardon to others, and refusing release onany account to the remainder. This decision did not commend itself to the Straits Government, and HisExcellency the Governor suggested the deputation of a special officerfrom India to inquire into the matter. Mr. Brodhurst, of the Bengal Civil Service, was accordingly deputed. This officer extended his inquiries to the cases of other convictsbrought specially to his notice by the Straits Government; and onreceipt of his report, the Government of India granted unconditionalreleases in certain cases, while in others the convicts were pardonedconditionally on their not leaving the Straits. On this representation by the Straits Government, His Excellency theGovernor-General in Council, having reconsidered the subject, decidedthat any Indian or Burmese, who had completed twenty-five years'imprisonment and bore a good character, should be released, withpermission to return to India or Burmah, provided he, or she, as thecase might be, was not convicted of one of the offences enumeratedbelow, viz. :-- 1. Thuggee. 2. Dacoity. 3. Professional poisoning. 4. Belonging to a gang of Dacoits. 5. Belonging to a gang of Thugs. 6. Mutiny or rebellion with murder. Of those who did not come under this category, some were pardonedunconditionally; others were released after they had completedtwenty-five years' imprisonment, on condition that their conductcontinued satisfactory. Of those who were pardoned unconditionally manyreturned to their own country; but when they arrived there they foundthings so uncongenial that they returned to the Straits and settled downas shopkeepers, cowkeepers, cartmen, etc. , and most of them sought andobtained employment either with private individuals or in the PublicWorks Department. Several of the skilled artificers, who had been pettyofficers, were employed as sub-assistant overseers and gangers on publicworks, where their services proved to be of great utility, their prisontraining having rendered them much more to be relied upon than free men, and, as far as we have been able to ascertain, none of them have beenreconvicted. Of the total number of convicts in the Straits at the time when theconvict establishment was broken up in 1873-- 256 had been transported for Thuggee. 581 " " " " Dacoity. 21 " " " " Professional poisoning. 269 " " " " Robbery with murder, including highway robbery and gang robbery. ----- 1, 127 The remainder were nearly all for murder, for being accomplices inmurder, or for robbery with violence, and for felony. Chapter XII DISEASES AND MALINGERING Perhaps a few observations on the principal diseases to which theseIndian convicts were liable may be found useful; and we take for thepurpose the statistics of the year 1863-64 as given in Appendix No. 2, when nostalgia did not occur. In alluding to these diseases, we shall atthe same time notice the locality of the Singapore jail, and thecomposition of the soil on which it was built. It is now universallyrecognised that the soil on which communities reside continuously doesin a measure influence their health. So many works on hygiene have, however, been written, and so much hasbeen said by medical experts on this subject, that we may almost saythat it has been exhaustively treated. What we wish to show is simplythat soil and locality do not influence all communities alike. The site of the Singapore jail in Brass Basa Road was originally a pieceof low ground saturated with brackish water; and the convicts themselveswere, as we have elsewhere stated, employed in conveying red earth fromthe side of Government Hill to reclaim most of this marsh, in order toerect thereon the necessary buildings for their occupation. The site hadto be raised from two to four feet, and the red earth was what might becalled disintegrated laterite or clay ironstone. When the finished levelwas completed, it was about two feet above high water mark S. T. Thesurface of the enclosure had been so thoroughly trodden down, rolled, and graded to the drains and into the adjoining canal, that, with theperiodical coatings of pure white sand from the Serangoon sand pits thathad been laid over it, it had become almost impervious to water; andthis we would notice particularly, for it had much to do with thesanitary condition of the jail and its inmates. The dormitories were further raised slightly over two feet above thegeneral surface, and their floors were carefully laid, so as literallyto be as dry as a bone. From Appendix No. 2 it will be seen that the principal disease fromwhich these Indian convicts suffered was "fever, " but not of a dangeroustype; for, upon comparing the admissions to hospital with the deathsfrom this disease in all three settlements during the year referred to, we find that in Singapore and Penang they were _nil_, and but seven inMalacca. The next ailment which presented numerous cases were abscessesand ulcers, and the deaths from this cause amounted only to one inSingapore. Many of these ulcers were on the legs, and were caused bygrit getting between the skin and the leather band worn under the fetterrings of convicts in the fourth and fifth classes. Stomach and bowelcomplaints rank next on the list, but we find that the deaths here onlyamounted to units. Rheumatic affections were numerous, caused perhaps inthat damp climate from working on extra-mural duties and returning tojail in wet clothes with the wind blowing on them. A few cases of dropsyappear on the list, the largest number occurring in Penang, three onlyat Singapore. There were ordinary cases of oedema. The death-rate to strength per cent, from ordinary diseases for the yeargiven was 2. 20 for Singapore, 3. 82 for Penang, and 3. 17 for Malacca. Perhaps the special attention to sanitation in Singapore may account forthe death-rate being lower here than at the sister settlements. After the convict jail had been broken up, and the convicts had all leftit, the jail was handed over to the prison authorities to be convertedinto a criminal prison for the whole settlements. Not long after thischange had taken place a very peculiar disease broke out amongst theinmates. It was known as Beri-beri, or, as some call it, the "Badsickness of Ceylon. " It is a very serious disease, and some think itarises from extreme exertion without sufficient sustenance to the body. In 1878 the ratio of mortality in the prison had risen to 16. 20 percent. ; in 1879 it was further augmented to 20. 63 per cent. The LocalGovernment deemed it necessary without delay to appoint a Committee ofInquiry into the possible causes which had given rise to the spread ofthis disease. The conclusion at which they arrived was that it was dueto the want of proper drainage of the site, so that the soil had gotwater-logged, and had generated malaria; also, that the prisoners neededa more nitrogenous diet. They advised the erection of an entirely newprison on a better and more elevated locality. These suggestions wereall adopted, and the Committee in their judgment were greatly aided byDr. Irvine Rowell, C. M. G. , the Principal Civil Medical Officer, whoformed one of the Committee. There was no time lost by the Government with the Colonial Engineer(Major McNair) in preparing plans and erecting on the west side ofPearl's Hill, near the old civil jail, a prison on the cellular system, and after the most approved English model; but the change of site didnot effectually remove the disease, for as late as the year 1884 "therewere 262 cases under treatment. In the first nine months of that yearthe deaths were comparatively small, but during the latter three monthsthey increased, constituting nearly one half of the total deaths duringthat period. " Dr. Kerr attributed this increase to exacerbation in thetype, and epidemicity of the disease. It is not necessary, nor is it within our province, to attempt adescription in detail of this disease; and happily it is mostly confinedto Ceylon and the Malay Archipelago, though it occurs occasionally inChina and Japan, where in the former country it is known as "Tseng, " andin the latter as "Kak-ki. " It is referred to in a book we have quoted inthe body of this work, viz. , that written by "Godinho de Eredia" in1613, reproduced by M. Leon Janssen in 1882. It is called therebere-bere, which in the Malay language signifies a "sheep, " or a "birdwhich buries its eggs in the sand, " and is not now known by the Malaysunder that name, as far as we can gather, as a "disease. " Godinho deEredia says that the Malays cured it by the use of a wine made from thenipa palm, from whence we know a saccharine fermentable juice exudesfrom the cut spadices of this and other species. They call this juice"tuaca. " Marco Polo alludes to the same wine in his second book, chapterxxv. Some authorities say it arises from malarious exhalations, favoured bydamp, or over-crowding in buildings improperly ventilated. To thislatter cause we are inclined to attribute the outbreak in the Singaporeprison; for when the prison was occupied by the Indian convicts, thearea of open space round the different wards and buildings was wellexposed to the action of sun and wind, but after its conversion into acriminal prison, this open space was divided off by high division walls, and for the purpose of shot drill and work sheds the enclosure wasstill further crowded. Perhaps the disturbance also of the soil may havehad something to do with it, for we have known instances in the townwhere the excavation of subsoils had liberated noxious gases. It was, however, very remarkable that during the period of overtwenty-five years when this jail was occupied by the Indian convicts, not a single case of beri-beri was known to have occurred. The medicalofficers were quite unable to account for this, and of itsnon-occurrence in other parts of the town. The Rev. Wallace Taylor, M. D. , of Osaka in Japan, attributed the diseaseto a microscopic spore found largely developed in rice, and which he hadalso detected in the earth of certain alluvial and damp localities. FEIGNED DISEASES The question of feigned diseases should find a place in a work treatingupon convicts, for amongst a number of natives in confinement--andindeed also amongst European prisoners where--regular work is insistedupon, and idleness in any is severely punished, it is but natural thatsome should be found to resort to expedients to escape work, or, inother words, to malinger. Perhaps the most frequent cases of convicts in irons was theencouraging of sores round the ankles, where the iron rings of theirfetters were placed; and this was done, notwithstanding the precautionalways taken to guard the ankles with leathern bands for the rings torest upon. When suspicion was attached to a convict in irons that he wastampering with his leg sores, he was at once detailed to work with thegang beating out coir from cocoanut husks: it involved no use of thelegs, but it was the hardest of labours. The result was that the convictsoon gave up the trick, and begged to return to outdoor work with hisown gang. Of course there were cases where convicts working on roads orat sand pits may get grit below their leathers, which, without knowingit at the time, would cause a sore; but such cases were readilydistinguished from those sores wilfully caused and designedly kept open. We had no cases of feigned insanity or any species of mania, but casesof imitated "moon blindness, " or dim-sightedness, did occur now andagain for the purpose of shirking night watch. Upon one occasion we had a remarkable instance of shamming blind, whichis worth giving in detail. The case was that of a life convicttransported from Madras, who complained that lime had suddenly got intoboth of his eyes while employed at the lime kilns. It was deemed by themedical authorities as not unnatural that he should become blind fromcaustic quick-lime, and he was admitted into the convalescent gang, where he had only the simple and easy task of picking oakum. The deceitwas as cleverly kept up for years as it was cleverly commenced at theoutset, and was only detected by Dr. Cowpar, a hard-headed Scotchman andskilful surgeon, who, during the absence of the permanent incumbent, hadbeen appointed by the Government to officiate as medical officer of thejail. After his inspection of the invalids in the convalescent gang, helooked at the eyes of the "blind man"; and, having some suspicion in hismind, he decided that he should be put aside for closer examination. When the inspection was over, the "blind man" was taken, and carefullyled by the peon in charge of the gang to one of the long wards, when hewas told to walk up and down in the presence of the doctor. After he hadmade two or three trips, the doctor directed two men to hold a long poleabout a foot off the ground on the track he had to pass. When he came tothe pole he fell over it flat on his face, and to the bystanders itseemed rather an inhuman proceeding on the part of the doctor, but hehad observed an ominous pause before the convict had struck the polewith his legs. He sent for his case of instruments, and, withdrawing a probe, he withlittle difficulty removed the film off both of the man's eyes, whichproved to be nothing more nor less than the thin membrane found insidean egg, which the convict had artfully introduced, and renewed from timeto time. Of course he was reduced to the fifth class, and to thehardest labour. We have often thought it strange that none of his fellow-convictsappeared to suspect him, or if they did, they kept it back from the jailauthorities; and certainly to any casual observer the deception wascomplete, and it was the best case of feigned blindness we have everknown or heard of. Upon the whole, however, cases of malingering were few and far between, as most of the convicts became after a time interested in the works uponwhich they were engaged, and those in irons were ever on the look-outfor promotion to a higher class. Sometimes there was a case of feignedrheumatism or paralysis, but the application of the galvanic batteryinvariably cured them of that after a few powerful shocks. Chapter XIII CONCLUSION We have now given a full, and, as far as we could, a succinct account ofthe system pursued in the old Singapore jail. We have traced the historyof the convict establishments in all the penal settlements in thoseseas, and have shown the progressive improvements in the convict prisonsup to the time when, as was acknowledged by many competent authorities, a system of organization and discipline had been satisfactorily attainedto, especially at the headquarter jail at Singapore. We have also shownthe number and variety of industries that were from time to timeintroduced, and the utilization of trained artificers in theconstruction of important public works in the Straits Settlements. Perhaps we may say that the conduct of these prisons from the year 1825, down to 1845, was in a measure experimental; but at any time we do notassert that the system was free from defects. But on the whole, in thetreatment of these trans-marine convicts, it worked with remarkablesuccess, and was well adapted to their condition and circumstances; forit must not be forgotten that we had to deal with convicts who in greatpart had expiated their crimes by a sentence of banishment to a foreigncountry, which we have already explained was more severely felt by anative of India than could possibly be by any European. As a matter offact, owing to caste prejudices, transportation across the seas was tomany of the Indian convicts worse than death itself, for it carried withit not only expulsion from caste, but, owing to their wrong conceptionof fate, or "nusseeb" as they call it, a dread of pain and anguish inanother existence. In the later management of this jail, to all fresh arrivals for lifethere was a period of probation of three years, during which time theywere fettered and worked in gangs upon the public roads. This wasthoroughly punitive, and with no liberty whatever. They were, in pointof fact, full of fears and practically without hope. After a time, theybegan to find that the only chance of any amelioration from this hardlabour was by a course of good conduct; and they saw before them theirown countrymen, who had once been similarly circumstanced, occupyingbetter positions and employed on less distasteful work. They also heardfrom their fellows that several had attained to a ticket of leave, andwere earning for themselves an honest livelihood in the place of theirbanishment. This, then, was their encouragement; but not a few at first, however, though carefully treated in hospital, died from "nostalgia, " or"love of country, " before they could complete their term of probation. The late General, then Captain Man, who, as we have already said, did agreat deal in the consolidation of the convict system of Singapore, wentfrom the Straits Settlements to the Andamans, and inaugurated there thesame system; but we learn that since his time convicts upon firstarrival from India are placed for a certain period in separate cells, and no doubt the authorities had good and weighty reasons for thechange. We have no report as to the advantage or otherwise of thisprobationary alteration, but from what we have said, it will be seenthat we incline to the belief that for this class of native convictswork in irons upon the public roads is a better "first trial" than toplace them under what is known to us as the "cellular system. " For local prisoners, who after their sentences have expired are returnedto the town, we do advocate the "cellular system, " and have ourselvesdesigned and built for term convicts several wards upon this system. Theadvantage gained is complete isolation from one another for a fixedperiod, and the indiscriminate admixture of classes thus avoided, and sopossibly by this means a recrudescence of crime in the place prevented;but with convicts under banishment, and mostly for a life term, we thinkthe conditions are very different, and we prefer the plan adopted in theold Singapore convict jail. The punishments in force by our laws are of course designed to deal outretributive justice to the prisoner for his offence against society, andso to prevent, if possible, a repetition of the offence by others, andby this means to protect society against evil-doers. There is no wish topunish with any vindictive feeling, but rather, if it can be done, tobring about the reform of the prisoner, and to take away from him thedesire to offend again; and as "Beccaria, " the Italian philanthropist, well said, "those penalties are least likely to be productive of goodeffect which are more severe than is necessary to deter others. " In the later days of our Singapore convict jail, of which time only arewe in a position to express an opinion, the treatment of the convictswas one of discipline from beginning to end. There was first theprobationary period under fetters, in gangs upon the public roads, orupon the severest hard labour; next the period of freedom from thisrestraint and a time of test, and if they stood this test well, thenadvancement to a position of trust, either on the lower rung of theprison warder-staff, with a belt of authority across the shoulder, or, if an aptitude for any trade was evinced, to the position of a novice inthe workyard, at whatever branch of industry the convict was thought tobe best suited. There was then open to the prison warder a rise in gradeto that of peon, with a distinctive badge, and eventually to the highestgrade of a tindal or duffadar, if duly qualified. In the case of theindustrial class there was also open a promotion to a higher grade, andeventually to that of a foreman of artificers. All were fully occupiedand employed, and the jail was in point of fact a busy hive of industry, the pervading idea of the convict authorities being to teach the convictto love labour, and to take a personal interest in it. We know that there are still some who think that no prisoner, whileundergoing his sentence, should be allowed to feel any pleasure in theoccupation in which he may be engaged; and hence they advocate thecrank, shot drill, and other aimless tasks, which serve but to irritate, and do not the least good to the heart, from whence all our actionsspring. For a short term of probation, no doubt, the task should beirksome; but when this is over and it should not be prolonged workshould be given which would tend to call out the best feelings, restoreself-respect, and act as a sort of cordial to remove lowering anddepression. To explain by a homely instance what we mean, we willmention an incident that occurred to one of us when building the Wokingprison in 1866. A convict undergoing sentence there, of the labouringclass, was found to be of an exceptionally dogged and dull nature. Nothing pleased him; he was disgusted with the world, and wished he wasout of it. After a time he was tried at plain brick-laying in afoundation, and gradually began to handle a brick rather well. Heseemed to grow step by step more reconciled to his lot, and was advancedto work upon a chimney-piece. A day or two later he was asked how he wasgetting on. He then replied, with a bright smile upon his face, "Oh, very well, sir, now! I likes my chimbley-piece, and dreams of her atnights in my lonely cell. " Hence we see how the implacable temper of this convict gave way over acongenial bit of work, and the first step was thus taken towards hisreformation of character, and he continued to improve until his releasefrom prison. Herbert Spencer says with truth, "that experience and experiments haveshown all over the world that the most successful criminal discipline isa discipline of decreased restraints and increased self dependence"; andto a degree of this "self dependence" the convict we refer to had beenencouraged to aspire. Of course, in all criminal prisons we must expect a certain percentageof incorrigible characters, who under the best training cannot bebrought under control; but the bulk of those in the old Singapore jail, and we had often as many as two thousand at a time, were well behaved, and gave evidence of the good influence of a course of discipline uponthem; for when they were advanced to a ticket-of-leave, and thrown againon their own resources, they very rarely a second time came under thecognisance of the police, but peaceably merged into the population, andearned their livelihood by honest means. We have one word to say in reference to the employment of these convictsas warders over their fellow-prisoners; a system, so far as we areaware, then unattempted either in Europe or America, even in a modifiedform. We do not, however, see why, in the case of well-behaved andsuitable European convicts sentenced to long periods of penal servitude, some might not be placed in certain such positions of trust under freewarders; and as the new prison rules for our jails may possibly involvea large increase in the warder staff, it has occurred to us that thesystem might have a trial to a limited extent; but we are, of course, not in a position to speak with any authority upon the subject asaffecting our own prisons. In our case, with the exception of two orthree European warders, the whole warder staff were convicts; and atfirst, certainly, there was the fear that so large a number of convictwarders might side with the convicts, when a rule they might havethought repugnant to all, was introduced by the governing body. Therealso appeared the danger that discipline might be undermined by a systemof favouritism, especially amongst men of the same caste, or that theywould shut their eyes to breaches of the rules. None of these apprehensions were, however, experienced; but, on thecontrary, these convict warders were always the first to apprise theauthorities of any contemplated attempt at escape, or of any ill-feelingthat might be brewing amongst any particular class, or breach of prisonrules; so that, in a great measure, they acted in the double capacity ofboth detectives and police. It was only upon very rare occasions that aconvict warder had to be disrated; and the punishment amongst themconsisted for the most part in fines for want of vigilance and attentionto detail, and such like petty offences. They all manifested the highestappreciation of the trust reposed in them, and lived in a perpetual fearthat they might forfeit their position, and have to begin anew the wholecourse of jail punishment. It need scarcely be said that great care was exercised to single out menof the best character, and to the highest posts those who could takeupon themselves responsibility as men of purpose and discretion. Promotion in the different grades was made only by the Superintendent, who in our case was an officer who had served in India, knew natives ofmost sects and races, and was acquainted with their habits and customs, and spoke one or two of their languages. The prison system in all its branches worked in perfect harmony, and allthe parts of it seemed to be adapted to each other. Discipline wasmaintained throughout, and the artificer gang, as we have shown, developed a high skill in their various trades; so that important publicworks could be executed without difficulty or embarrassment. Those alsowho had passed through its course, and were admitted back to societyupon a ticket of leave, as a rule behaved themselves as good citizens. In the extraction of labour from the convicts, there was no desire onthe part of the Government to work the establishment with a view to showany pecuniary profit in the returns; though, as it proved, the actualcost to the State was often more than reimbursed by their labour, estimated as it was at two-thirds of that prevailing in the place, andthe material at half the market price. However, in regard to this partof the question we might here quote "Jeremy Bentham, " who once wiselysaid of prison labour, "It is not the less reforming for beingprofitable. " We would now take leave of our old Singapore jail, as indeed, owing tothe result of the earnest entreaty of the community to the Government, it finally took leave of us in 1873, though in our judgment perhaps alittle too prematurely in the best interests of the colony. We can only hope that in the record we have now given, we have furnishedsome suggestions for general application to those who, like ourselves, are concerned not merely with the punishment of the criminal, but alsowith his reformation, both as a question of social science, and to theprisoner's own ulterior benefit. This reformation could, we think, be best brought about by a course ofsevere probationary discipline at the outset, to be followed up bycontinuous employment upon productive occupations and trades, so as toencourage within the criminal a lively diligence and a perseveringindustry; ourselves meanwhile also encouraged in the task by the wordsof Shakespeare, that "There is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distil it out. " _King Henry V. _, Act. Iv. , Scene i. APPENDICES APPENDIX I Statement of the expenses of the convict jail in Singapore for the years1862-63 and 1863-64, showing the average cost per prisoner:-- Heads of Expenditure. 1, 964 Prisoners in 1862-63. 1, 995 Prisoners in 1863-64. 1862-63. 1863-64. -------- -------- Rs. Rs. Rations 67, 803 9 10 62, 901 0 10 Money Allowance 20, 938 13 8 19, 369 14 3 -------------- -------------- Total 88, 742 7 6 82, 270 15 1 Cost per Prisoner 45 2 11 41 3 10 Fixed Establishment 16, 094 1 0 11, 173 1 5 Cost per Prisoner 8 3 1 5 9 7 Extra Establishment _nil. _ _nil. _ Cost per Prisoner " " -------------- -------------- Total 16, 094 1 0 11, 173 1 5 Cost per Prisoner 8 3 1 5 9 7 Hospital Charges European Medicines } Bazaar ditto } 472 13 0 454 10 4 Sick Diet } -------------- -------------- Total 472 13 0 454 10 4 Cost per Prisoner 0 3 10 0 3 7½ Clothing, including Blankets and Bedding 8, 699 14 6 8, 250 14 4 Cost per Prisoner 4 6 11 4 2 2 Contingencies 3, 235 3 1 4, 407 5 3 Cost per Prisoner 1 10 4 2 3 4½ Additions, Alterations, and Repairs 100 12 2 51 8 8 Cost per Prisoner 0 0 10 0 0 5 -------------- -------------- Gross Cost of Maintenance 17, 345 3 3 106, 608 7 1 Gross Cost per Prisoner 59 11 11 53 7 0 The above table gives a fair average of the annual cost of maintenanceof each prisoner as taken from the records of the jail. APPENDIX II Return of the Hospital Department of prisoners in jails in Singapore, Penang and Province Wellesley, and Malacca, from 1st May, 1863, to 30thApril, 1864, exhibiting the average strength, number of admissions ofsick, number of deaths, etc. , in each jail during the year, and the rateper cent. :-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stations Singapore. Penang and Malacca. Total. Province Wellesley. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Average strength during the Year 2, 400 1, 150 661 4, 211 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Admissions during the Year Fevers 222 260 292 774 Eruptive Fevers 25 2 26 53 Diseases of the Lungs 30 55 63 148 Liver 9 -- 1 10 Stomach and Bowels 81 216 93 390 Brain 12 19 41 72 Generative and Urinary Organs 51 23 24 98 Eyes 50 27 9 86 Skin 50 20 37 107 Cholera 3 -- -- 3 Dropsies 13 27 6 46 Rheumatic Affections 58 107 31 196 Abscesses and Ulcers 204 198 84 486 Wounds and Injuries 58 93 42 193 Other Diseases 181 47 32 260 Total 1, 047 1, 094 781 2, 922 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Deaths during the Year Fevers -- -- 7 7 Eruptive Fevers 7 1 3 11 Diseases of the Lungs 4 2 2 8 Liver 1 -- -- 1 Stomach and Bowels 6 9 4 19 Brain -- 2 -- 2 Generative and Urinary Organs -- -- -- -- Eyes -- -- -- -- Skin 3 -- -- 3 Cholera 2 -- -- 2 Dropsies 3 8 1 12 Rheumatic Affections 1 -- 1 2 Abscesses and Ulcers 1 -- -- 1 Wounds and Injuries 2 1 -- 3 Other Diseases 25 21 3 49 Total 55 44 21 120 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Discharged during the Year 943 1, 012 742 2, 697 Transfer during the Year -- -- -- -- Liberated during the Year -- -- -- -- Remaining 49 38 18 105 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rate per cent. Sick to Strength 43. 62 95. 1 118. 45 69. 43 Death by ordinary diseases to strength 2. 20 3. 82 3. 17 2. 802 Death by Cholera to strength 00. 8 -- -- 004. 74 Total Deaths to Strength 2. 29 3. 82 3. 17 2. 84 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The rate per cent. Of the total deaths to strength at the threesettlements may appear high, but it is accounted for by the number ofold convicts dying off. APPENDIX III The following table gives the value of materials manufactured by convictlabour; the money expenditure in addition to the convict labour on eachitem, and the difference in favour of the State for the years 1862-63and 1863-64:-- ------------------------------------------------- Value of Materials. ------------------------------------------------- 1862-63. Rs. Rs. To value of Bricks 25, 149 10 To value of Lime 600 9 To value of Cement 3, 844 12 To value of Granite 2, 058 10 To value of Weaver's Work 1, 432 11 To value of Rattan Work 862 0 --------- 33, 988 4 Deduct Expenditure 29, 908 10 --------- Difference in favour of the State Rs. 4, 074 10 ------------------------------------------------- Cost of Production. ------------------------------------------------- 1862-63. Rs. Rs. Bricks By Convict Labour 14, 293 9 Money Expenditure 5, 882 10 --------- 20, 176 3 Lime By Convict Labour 242 14 Money Expenditure 535 14 --------- 778 12 Cement By Convict Labour 952 13 Money Expenditure 138 9 --------- 1, 091 6 Granite By Convict Labour 5, 859 9 Money Expenditure _nil. _ --------- 5, 859 9 Weaver's Work By Convict Labour 594 6 Money Expenditure 546 6 --------- 1, 140 12 Rattan Work By Convict Labour 862 0 Money Expenditure _nil. _ --------- 862 0 --------- Total Rs. 29, 908 10 ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Value of Materials. ------------------------------------------------- 1863-64. Rs. Rs. To value of Bricks 26, 683 12 To value of Lime and Cement 3, 720 0 To value of Granite 6, 574 0 To value of Weaver's Work 1, 872 5 To value of Rattan Work 915 13 --------- 36, 765 14 Deduct Expenditure 25, 344 8 --------- Difference in favour of the State Rs. 11, 421 6 ------------------------------------------------- Cost of Production. ------------------------------------------------- 1863-64. Rs. Rs. Bricks By Convict Labour 8, 122 14 Money Expenditure 9, 667 4 --------- 17, 790 2 Lime and Cement By Convict Labour 785 6 Money Expenditure 552 6 --------- 1, 337 12 Granite By Convict Labour 3, 327 9 Money Expenditure _nil. _ --------- 3, 327 9 Weaver's Work By Convict Labour 1, 368 14 Money Expenditure 604 7 --------- 1, 973 5 Rattan Work By Convict Labour 915 13 Money Expenditure _nil. _ --------- 915 12 --------- Total Rs. 25, 344 8 ------------------------------------------------- APPENDIX IV The following is a tabulated account of the cost of the brick kilns tothe State, and the value of these convict-made bricks in the localmarket. The output of bricks per month when four tables were at work was230, 000, and their value at $45. 00 per 10, 000 would be $1, 035. The costof manufacture was as follows:-- $ Overseer's Salary 45. 00 Labour of 125 Convicts, at 25cts. Per diem for artizans and 9cts. For labourers 306. 00 Cost of Fuel 200. 00 Wear and Tear 17. 10 Food for Cattle 24. 30 Contingencies 16. 20 ------- Total $608. 60 ======= $ Value of 230, 000 of Bricks at $45 per laksa, that being the market price for Government Bricks 1, 035. 00 Deduct cost of manufacture 608. 60 -------- Difference to credit of the State $426. 40 ======== Bricks were debited to Government Works at $20 per laksa. The size of aGovernment brick mould was 10¼ x 5¼ x 3 ins. The bricks when burntmeasured 9 x 4½ x 2¾ ins. , and weighed about 7 lbs. When dry, and about7 lbs. 3 or 4 ozs. After soaking in fresh water. These were ordinarybricks, but those manufactured for hydraulic work were impervious towater. NOTE. --The size of a Chinese-made brick when burnt is 10 x 5 x 1½ ins. It requires 22 Chinese-made bricks to build one cubic foot of brickwork, but of convict-made Government bricks a cubic foot of brickwork requires13 only. APPENDIX V Number and nature of defaults committed by Indian convicts:-- -------------------------------------------------------- Nature of Defaults. For the year 1846. 1856. 1866. -------------------------------------------------------- Stealing 11 11 11 Disobedience of Orders 4 1 10 Drunkenness 2 15 6 Assault 1 -- -- Neglect of Duty 4 22 12 Smuggling Articles into Jail 4 -- 4 Disturbing Women at Night 1 -- -- Sleeping while on Duty 1 3 7 Cutting and Wounding 1 1 -- Breaking open a Convict's Box 1 -- -- Allowing Local Prisoners to speak to Outside Men -- 1 -- Receiving Money for Safe Keeping and Denying the Same -- 3 -- Quarrelling and Abusing -- 5 9 Telling Falsehood -- 3 2 Allowing Local Prisoners to Abscond -- 3 19 Idleness at Work -- 1 3 Gambling -- 6 4 Absent from Roll Call -- 4 17 Impertinence to Warder -- 1 -- Selling his own Cloths -- 2 -- Confined by the Police -- 5 -- Striking a Fellow-Convict -- 5 3 Refusing to Work -- 3 6 Unlawfully Detaining a Man's Sampan -- 1 -- Creating a Disturbance -- 2 2 Bringing a False Charge -- 1 1 Writing a Threatening Petition -- 2 -- Having Stolen Property in Possession -- 1 -- Wilfully Destroying Tools -- 1 -- Carelessness at Work -- 7 6 Leaving Work without Orders -- 4 4 Intending to Abscond -- 11 -- Bringing a Woman into the Hospital at Night -- 1 -- Selling Rations -- 2 -- Begging in the Streets -- 1 3 Committing a Nuisance -- 1 -- Mixed up in Street Rows -- 1 -- Counterfeiting Coin -- 1 -- Buying Rations from a Fellow-Convict -- -- 1 Pawning -- -- 1 Suspected of Thieving -- -- 2 Losing Cloths -- -- 4 Leaving his Watch -- -- 6 Committed by the Police -- -- 9 Attempting to Commit Suicide -- -- 1 Marrying without Permission -- -- 1 Carrying Letters for Local Prisoners -- -- 3 Disrespect to Superiors -- -- 2 Obtaining Money under False Pretences -- -- 1 Receiving Bribes -- -- 1 Impertinence -- -- 2 Malingering -- -- 2 Suspected of being Concerned in a Murder -- -- 2 Assaulting a Free Man -- -- 4 -------------------------------------------------------- Total 30 132 172 -------------------------------------------------------- This table gives the number and nature of the defaults committed by theIndian convicts for the years 1846, 1856 and 1866, but it is doubtfulwhether the list for 1846 is complete, as the prison records do notappear to have been fully kept up; anyhow they are not to be found, andat that time the inquiry room had not been established. The number ofconvicts under discipline and on ticket of leave during the twenty yearswas between 1, 900 and 2, 500, which shows a small percentage ofdefaulters, and they are all, with few exceptions, of a petty nature. APPENDIX VI Extracts from letters from T. Church, Esq. , Resident Councillor, Singapore, addressed to the Honourable the Governor of the Straits. 15th September, 1849. Transmits copy of letter from Captain Man, dated August, 1849, forwarding account of value of labour of the convicts for the year ending 30th April last. In my last report I adverted to the efficient state of this department, and the importance of the work performed by convicts under the zealous and active supervision of the Superintendent. The accompanying papers will, I think, satisfy your Honour, and distant authorities likewise, that the value of the labour of the convicts, particularly the artificers, is annually becoming developed; and even now the skill of the men is quite equal, if not superior, to the free labourers generally employed by the Superintending Engineer; in fact, Major Faber has on more than one occasion expressed his professional opinion on the superiority of the masonry and other works executed by the convict body. I trust the period is not far distant when the Government will allow all repairs and minor works to be done by the Superintendent of Convicts, a measure much to be desired, and vastly more economical than the present system. The annexed statement has no pretensions to accuracy, and I am rather disposed to place on record Captain Man's estimate than my own; but whichever is adopted, the result is most satisfactory, as showing that the labour of the convicts is equivalent to all expenses incurred in their maintenance at this station. August, 1850. A cursory view of the papers submitted by Captain Man will show how much the community are indebted to the convict body for the cleanliness of the streets in town, and the extensive and admirable roads in the country, which elicit the praise and even the astonishment of sojourners from the continent of India, and the Colonies. 10th August, 1852. Captain Man's report is exceedingly gratifying, and demonstrates how admirably adapted the existing rules and regulations are to preserve order and discipline among a large body of probably the most vicious and demoralized characters from the presidencies, and at the same time render their labour of considerable importance to the place of transportation. Extracts from the letters of the Governor of the Straits Settlements tothe Resident Councillor, Singapore:-- 29th August, 1850. The management of the convict body at Singapore reflects great credit on Captain Man, whose energy and zeal in the execution of his duties have always been very conspicuous; and I notice with extreme satisfaction the eulogium passed on that officer in the concluding paragraphs of your communication. The observations of the Superintendent of Convicts and Roads at this station, as well as at Penang, on the aforesaid rules and regulations, coupled with your notice of the same, have afforded me unqualified gratification, seeing that they were drawn up by me so far back as 1845 in the face of much opposition to the entire abolition of free men as petty officers, in which, however, as in all matters connected with the welfare of this station, I acknowledge your cordial support and assistance. APPENDIX VII The head of the Madras Medical Department Dr. Edward Balfour, visitedthis jail in August, 1863, and thus recorded his opinion:-- The point that most struck me in the management of this jail were the diversified occupations and evident industry of its inmates, and their complete employment. The mass were actively working, and the few were superintending those engaged in labour. I have not before seen the various labouring industries of artizans so largely introduced in any jail, nor have I seen such diligence in their labour. Blacksmiths' and tinsmiths' work, carpentry and sawmills, carving and coopering, stonemasons, manufacture of coir and woollen yarn for blankets, weaving door-mats, and printing too, all in active operation inside the jail, with wood-cutting, brick and tile works, and vegetable gardens without. Daily task work, and its allotment and registration as to quantities performed in the jail, may be operating to produce the application to the work before them which the prisoners were everywhere giving. The hospital and its arrangements were very perfect. The well-kept floor, the clean cots, and the very small number of about twenty inmates out of a strength of 2, 000, may be taken as indicative of the care in all other sanitary arrangements. Both the sickness and mortality seems very small. I have been much gratified with what I have seen, and have learned some points of interest and value. APPENDIX VIII Extract from the _Singapore Free Press_, October, 1884:-- To this day many of the released convicts are living in Singapore, cart owners, milk sellers, road contractors, and so on. Many of them are comfortably off, but are growing fewer year by year, and their places will never be filled by that class again. The name of Major McNair is a password to their good feelings, and all their disputes used to go to him as a matter of course. When the Major wrote the _Sarong and Kris, Perak and the Malays_, it was remarked by one of the reviewers that he hoped the Major would some day give an account of the old jail to the world. It was one of the most remarkable sights of the place, and no one came from India on a visit in those days without going over it before he returned. For all sorts of things, from coir matting and rattan chairs down to waste paper baskets, every one went to the jail; and the rattan chairs the Chinese now sell here so largely, were invented in the jail, beginning with a cumbrous heavy chair, which was the first pattern, down to the shape we see now. No doubt the system had its defects, and there was a wide difference between the jail as it is now, filled with offenders sentenced in Singapore, and a jail which contained criminals who came from distant places and did not know the local language, and had no friends outside the walls to help them to escape from the island if they succeeded in getting clear of the jail; but, notwithstanding, it was often a wonder to many to find so large an establishment of the worst characters of India kept in check by what was, practically, almost personal influence alone. APPENDIX IX From the _Singapore Free Press_, February 2nd, 1899. Given to show howvery lately this "head scare" superstition is entertained:-- THE "HEAD-CUTTING" SCARE. To the Editor of the _Free Press Pao_. MOST POWERFUL SIR, --Permit thy humble servant to approach thee by the way of my friend Tan Tan Tiam, who knoweth the Ang Moh's speech, and kindly consenteth to write to him who moveth the Government to influence the Tye Jin to have compassion upon the exiled sons of China. Thy servant is a humble puller of the man-power-carriage by night, and is suffering grievously because he is unable to carry on his lawful occupation of plying by hire, by reason of the dire fear that besetteth him. It hath come to the ears of thy servant and of his fellows, that the Ang Moh's engineers do seek a sacrifice to appease the offended gods of earth and water, whom they have outraged by disturbing his habitation on the hill that standeth behind the office of the Tye Jin, which they of India call Ko-mis-a-yat. The said engineers, perchance from ignorance, have neglected to consult the wise ones of earth-lore as to the means to be taken to please the said spirits, who have consequently so tormented the Ang Moh that they seek a sacrifice. Not of the rich and family-blessed, who would make a complaint to the Government, if they were sacrificed; but of us poor and friendless man-power-carriage coolies, who in the exercise of our nightly avocation are called to distant parts of the town, where the knife that is invisible will speedily sever the head from the body, and the cloth that is impenetrable will stifle the last cry of him that hath none to avenge, and our heads go to make the water run within the pipe, and make firm the foundations of this new water hole. Let the engineers make the necessary sacrifices, that we may go without fear and trembling to those who call us, with mighty voice and thick, to go to Si Poi Poh. Then shall we receive the reward of the Ang Moh's gratitude, far exceeding that of they who aforetime dwelt in the land, or of our brothers of the Celestial Empire. HAK-CHEW. Index Alquada Reef lighthouse, 112. Andaman Islands, 21, 143. _Anecdotal History_, on Singapore, etc. , convicts, 47, 67. Balfour, Dr. Edward: opinion of Singapore jail, 182. "Bastiani, " exporter of pine-apples to Europe, 60. Begbie, Captain, 43. Belcher, Sir Edward, R. N. , 61. Bencoolen, First penal settlement at, 1-3. Sir Stamford Raffles' letters on treatment of convicts at, 4-8. Transfer of convicts from, to Penang, 8. Transfer of convicts from, to Singapore, 39. "Bencoolen Rules" in force at Singapore, 43. Bennett, Mr. John, 61, 74. Beri-beri disease, 149. Blundell, Hon. Edmund Augustus, 73. Branding, 12. Bricks, Dearth of, at Singapore in 1844, 58. Bricks made by convicts, 110, 174. Brodhurst, Mr. , 144. Budoo road, 44. Bukit Timah Canal, 71. Butterworth, Colonel, 20, 61, 62. "Butterworth Rules, " 21, 62, 63. Campbell, Major, 42. Canning, Lord, 75. Cape Rachado, 29. Carrimon Islands, 33. Cathedral, Singapore, 97-101. Cavenagh, General Sir Orfeur, 52. "Cellular system, " 158. Chains, Convicts in, 40, 87. Chester, Lieutenant, 40. Chinese rioters dispersed by Indian convicts, 67-68. Church, Hon. Thomas, 73. Extracts from letters on value of convict labour, 179-181. Clarke, Sir Andrew, 3, 14. Clothing of convicts at Singapore jail, 94. Cobra, 128. Coleman, G. D. , Work performed by, at Singapore, 43-46. Collyer, Colonel, 75. Collyer Quay, 76. Convicts, Treatment of, at Penang, 16-20. Ticket-of-leave, at Penang, 24. At Malacca, 27-30. Transfer of, from Bencoolen to Singapore, 39. First trial of, as warders at Singapore, 40. Lenient treatment of, 41. Used for suppressing fires at Singapore, 42. Employed as orderlies and servants, 42. At Singapore, Malacca, Penang, and Maulmein, Extract from _Anecdotal History_ on, 47. Used for destroying tigers, 52. Used for surveying, 56. Employed for road-constructing, 19, 28, 59. Build lighthouses at Singapore, 60, 62. Indian, disperse Chinese rioters, 68. Bukit Timah Canal improved by, 71. A new St. Andrew's Church constructed by, 72, 97. Assist in building fortifications of Singapore, 76. Government House built by, 77, 101. Classification of, at Singapore jail, 84-89. Average number of, at Singapore, 89. Trades of, 90-92. Hours of work at Singapore, 92. Clothing of, at Singapore jail, 94. Industries of (intramural) 104-108. Industries of (extramural) 108-112. Stories about Indian, 113-142. Indian, fondness for spying, 123. Indian, Transfer of, to Port Blair from Singapore, 143. Pardoning, 143-145. Analysis of crimes of, in 1873, 145. Diseases of, at Singapore, 147-152. Death-rate of, at Singapore, 149. Disciplinary treatment of, at Singapore, 159. Incorrigible, 161. Materials made by, 172-175. Bricks made by, 172-175. Defaults committed by Indian, 176. Cotton, Dr. George, 74. Cowpar, Dr. , 154. Crawfurd, Mr. John, 36, 101. Crocodiles, 130, 134-138. "Dacoity, " 12. Davidson, M. F. , 61, 62. Death-rate of convicts at Singapore, 149, 170. De Barros on Malacca, 26. Dindings, 14. Diseases of convicts at Singapore, 147-152. Feigned, 152-155. Du Cane, Sir Edmund, 96. Edinburgh, H. R. H. The Duke of, 77. Faber, Captain, 58. Lays foundation stone of Pearl's Hill jail, 64. Farquhar, Major, 33. Fires, Convicts used for suppressing, 42. Flogging, 88. Forlong, General, 21, 63. Appreciation of Singapore convict system, 63. Fraser, Colonel, report on management of Singapore jail, 110. "Funny Joe, " 126. Godinho de Eredia, 25, 151. Government House at Singapore, 101-104. Guillaume, architect, 97. Guthrie, Mr. Alexander, 35. Guthrie, Mr. James, 101. Hamadryads, Convicts bitten by, 16. Hay, Mr. Andrew, 35. "Head Scare, " 69-70. Hilliard, Captain, 20. Hospital erected at Singapore, 57. Humphrey, Rev. William Topley, 73. Industries, Convict, 104-112. Jail erected near Brass Basa Canal, 54. New Civil, at Pearl's Hill, 64. Singapore, Description of, 77-83. Singapore, Classification of convicts at, 84-89. Singapore, Rations for, 93. Industries at Singapore, 104-112. Convict Probation at Singapore, 157. Expenses of Singapore, 169. Statistics of Hospital Department, 170-171. Janssen, M. Leon, 151. Johnstone, Mr. A. L. , 35. Johore, Sultan of, 36. Kerr, Dr. , 150. Labour, Value of convict, 92. Statistics of convict, 172-175. Latrines, 80-82. "Licuala acutifida, " 24. Light, Captain, 15. Lighthouses at Singapore, 60-62. Erected at eastern entrance to Straits of Malacca, 62. McClure, Sir Robert, 139. MacKenzie, Mr. E. , 35. McNair, Lieut. , 73. McNair, Major, 52. Rules introduced by, 1858-59, 63. Prepares plans for Government House at Singapore, 77, 97, 101. Macpherson, Captain Ronald, 71, 73. Macpherson, Colonel, 97. Attempt to kill, 125. Magaelhaens, Mr. , 61. Mahomed Shah, 26. Malacca, Origin of name of, 25. Size of, 26. Trade of, 26. The Portuguese at, 26. Appearance of, 27. First convicts at, 27. Industrial training of convicts at, 29. Transfer of convicts to Singapore from, 30. Trade, 1845-46, 65. Man, Captain, 158. Man, General, 20, 21. Man, General, Initiation of carpenter's work at Singapore, 64. Marco Polo, 151. Maxwell, Mr. D. A. , 35. Mayne, Major, 76. Montgomery, Mr. W. , 35. Moor's _Notices of the Indian Archipelago_, 45. Morgan, Mr. A. F. , 35. Morgan, Mr. John, 35. Mouat, Dr. , Paper on ticket-of-leave system at Singapore, 10. Testimony as to conservancy of Singapore jail, 82. Report on Singapore jail, 1864-65, 105. Napier, Mr. D. F. , 35. Netley Abbey, 97. New Harbour Dock, 67. Ord, Lady, 101. Ord, Sir Harry St. George, 76, 101. Oxley, Dr. , House of, attacked by burglars, 43. Pangkor, 14. Penang, Convicts transferred to, from Bencoolen, 8, 14. Increase in population of, 15. Trade of, 16, 65. Treatment of convicts at, 16-20. Ticket-of-leave at, 24. Seat of government fixed at, 41. "Penang lawyers, " 24. "Penang Rules, " 8, 18. In force at Singapore, 43. Pine-apples at Singapore, 59. Piracy in the Straits of Malacca, 120-122. Pooley, Lieut. -Col. Charles, 73. Port Blair, Transfer of Indian life-convicts to, 143. "Prince of Wales Island" (see also Penang), 14. Prisoners (see Convicts). Province Wellesley, Acquisition of, 14. Pulo Ubin, British flag planted at, 38. Purvis, Captain, 73. Purvis, Mr. John, 35. Queen, H. M. The, Statue of, 104. Raffles', Sir Stamford, letters to Government on treatment of convicts at Bencoolen, 4-8. Views of, on necessity of trading centre in Straits of Malacca, 33. Address from merchants at Singapore to, 36. Reply to address from merchants at Singapore, 37. "The Coney" lighthouse named after, 62. Raffles Institution, 45. Rations for Singapore jail, 93. Rawlinson, Sir Robert, K. C. B. , 76. Read, Mr. C. R. , 35. Read, Mr. W. H. , C. M. G. , 100. Rhio, 33. Roads opened between Bukit Timah and Krangi, 59. To summit of Telok Blangah Hill, 59. Rock-blasting by Indian convicts, 66. Rowell, Dr. Irvine, C. M. G. , 150. St. Andrew's Church, 68. Construction of a new, 72. Consecrated by Dr. George Cotton, Bishop of Calcutta, 74. Scott, Mr. Charles, 35. Scott, Mr. Thomas, 101. Serangoon road, 44. Shaw, Mr. Frank, 131. Singapore, Foundation of settlement, 34. Origin of name of, 31. Size of, 32. Ceded to Great Britain, 34. Population of, 34. First settlers at, 34, 35. Early prison at, 35. Address from merchants at, to Sir Stamford Raffles, 36. Extracts from reply to address from merchants to Sir S. Raffles, 37. First census, 38. Transfer of convicts from Bencoolen to, 39. First church for, 45. Jail erected, 1841, 54. Tigers at, 49-53. Extract from _The Free Press_ on progress of town, 55. Hospital erected, 57. Bricks, 58. Pine-apples, 59. Trade, 1845-46, 65. Census, 1849, 67. New church, 72. Fortification of, 75. Waterworks, 76. Jail, Description of, 77-83. Cathedral, 97-101. Government House, 101-104. Expenses of, jail, 169. _Singapore Free Press_: Extract on capture of a tiger, 50. Extract on ravages of tigers, 51. Extract on progress of Singapore town, 1842, 55. Extract on Singapore lighthouse, 61. Extract on tiger-hunting, 134. On released convicts, 183-184. On "head-cutting" scare, 185-186. Sleeman, Colonel, 12. Stevenson, Captain, 48. Stone Quarrying at Singapore, 111. Surveying, Convicts used for, 56. Tanjong Tatti, 33. Tan-Tock-Seng, 57. Taylor, Rev. Wallace, M. D. , 152. Temple, Col. R. C. , 21. Thompson, J. T. , 56. Designs hospital for Singapore, 57. Designs Singapore lighthouse, 60. "Thuggee, " 11. "Tickery Banda, " 113. Ticket-of-leave system, 10, 24. Employed in pine culture, 60. Tigers at Singapore, 49-53. Trap, 131. Trade for year 1845-46 of Penang, Singapore, and Malacca, 65. Trades of Singapore convicts, 90-92. Transportation, 8. Effect of, on the native of India, 9, 117, 157. _Tropical Possessions in Malayan India_, Story about "Tickery Banda" in, 113. Warders, Singapore convicts as, 40, 48, 162. Well-digging at Singapore, 112. White, Rev. Edmund, 45. Wilson, Rt. Rev. Daniel, D. D. , 73. Xavier, St. Francis, 27. Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London. Transcriber's Notes: Inconsistencies in the hyphenation of words preserved. (cocoanuts, cocoa-nuts; extramural, extra-mural; intramural, intra-mural; lookout, look-out; tongkong, tong-kong; transmarine, trans-marine; workyard, work-yard) Pg. 37, inserted missing period. (extracts from it. After acknowledging) Pg. 167-8, these were blank pages in the original text and anchors havenot been inserted for them. Pg. 187, index entry "Alquada". Is spelled "Alguada" in main text. Original spellings of both preserved as it is unclear which the authorintended. Pg. 188, index entry "Crawfurd, Mr. John". Pg. 36 which index refers tospells the name as "Crawford" while Pg. 101 spells it as "Crawfurd". Original spellings retained in all cases as it is unclear which spellingthe author intended. Pg. 189, index entry "Malacca". Inserted period after page number. (First convicts at, 27. ) Pg. 189, index entry "Moor's _Notices of the Indian Archipelago_". In the original text, both both the author's name and the title of thebook were italicized. Pg. 191, index entry "Tanjong Tatti". Is spelled "Tanjong Jatti" in maintext. Original spellings of both preserved as it is unclear which theauthor intended. Pg. 191, index entry "Thompson, J. T. ". Inserted comma before pagenumber. (Singapore lighthouse, 60)