All the principal stores and shops are either in “the Square” or its vicinity, and here you can procure home comforts of nearly every description, together with the latest books and home papers. You will procure the latest news at Little’s Store, and will see many things there to interest you. Sale & Co.’s, and Katz’s Stores, are also well worth a visit, and few of the Chinese shops will compare well with that of the late Hon. C. Whampoa, C.M.G., who was a most influential trader in the place. The “Square” is an oblong plot of turf planted with various tropical trees, and one of these, although fast going to decay, is well worthy of notice, being completely enshrouded with rare orchids of various kinds. This stands immediately opposite the Singapore Dispensary, and owes its interesting appearance to Mr. Jamie, who first planted it with orchids some years ago. Amongst other plants Aerides suavissimum is especially luxuriant, completely wreathing some of the principal branches with its glossy green leaves, and many seedlings of this species have germinated and are now promising little plants. Vandas, Phalænopsis grandiflora, and P. amabilis also grow and flower well here in close proximity to the dusty streets. In Singaporean gardens the rarest of moth orchids are planted in cocoa-nut shells and hung from the verandahs, or placed on the mango or orange trees on the lawn, where they soon establish themselves. How many English orchid amateurs would wish for such a genial clime.
A morning in the “Square” gives one a tolerably clear insight into the enterprise and trade of Singapore. You hear a good deal about the price of sago or gutta and rice, or about the chartering of steamers or sailing craft, or the freight on home or export goods. You are sure to meet two or three captains of trading steamers. Captain Linguard, perhaps, after one of his trips to the Coti river away on the south-east of Borneo, and then you will hear something of the rubber-market, or of the pirates, of whom, perhaps, few men know more than this energetic “Rajah Laut,” or “Sea King,” as he is called by the natives.
Another maritime celebrity is Captain Ross, a genial sailor, who owns the mail steamer “Cleator,” which runs between Singapore, Labuan, and Brunei, on the north-west Bornean coast. Captain Ross is well acquainted with the principal places in the whole Malayan Archipelago; and few residents have an equal colloquial knowledge of their languages. He has been attacked by pirates more than once in the old days, and is quite a nautical authority in every way. That tall, dark young fellow yonder, with the heavy moustache, is Captain Cowie, who ran the gauntlet of the Spanish gun-boats so successfully during the Sulu war, carrying rice, powder, and arms for the Sultan’s people; and here one also meets “old sea dogs” of nearly every nationality, but more especially English and Dutch.
One must of course look in at Emmerson’s for tiffin, and a glance at the home papers and telegrams. Tiffin is much like breakfast, only nearly all the dishes are cold. The curries here are excellent; and a well-made salad of fresh green vegetables is a treat, when the temperature is 92° in the shade. The Raffles Institution is well worthy of a visit—an interesting museum of native curiosities and natural history specimens having recently been formed; and there is here an excellent library of books, on nearly all subjects. A collection of economic products is in course of formation, and if well carried out, will add much to the interest of the place. The Botanical Gardens are situated at Tanglin, a distance of about three miles from the town of Singapore; and as the roads are smooth and level, it is a very pleasant journey, either in the morning or evening. One night each week the military band performs in the garden; and then a good many of the residents ride or drive out to “eat the air,” and hear the music before dinner. Good collections of orchids, palms, and economic plants, are here kept up, and the place forms an agreeable promenade morning and evening. In addition to the plants, a small collection of animals and birds, for the most part natives of the Archipelago, may be seen here. The island itself is tolerably flat, the elevated portions being in the form of low hills, or “bukits,” the highest, Bukit Timah, being about 400 feet above sea level. Many of the rare plants, formerly found here, have died out since the destruction of the old forest for cultivation. Wild pigs are plentiful; but the tigers do not often repeat the predatory visits of twenty or thirty years ago, when two or three hundred Chinamen were devoured every year. They now very rarely cross the “Old Straits,” a channel about half a mile wide, which separates the island from the mainland of Jahore.
In the Singapore Times, however, for Feb. 1, 1879, the following paragraph appeared, which shows that the brutes have not quite lost their old-established man-eating desires:—
“Tigers, it would appear, are approaching Singapore town unpleasantly close. On the 29th January a Chinaman was taken away by one on a plantation only about four miles from town; and unpleasant rumours are afloat that some have lately been seen in Sirangoon and Changhie.”
Much fruit is grown; and there are cocoa-nut, gambir, pepper, indigo and gamboge plantations on a small scale. Vegetable crops here, as in San Francisco, are a monopoly of the thrifty Chinese gardeners. The trade in economic products of the soil of the neighbouring islands is an important one, and, ere long, when cultivation extends more fully into Jahore and Perak, this will be much increased. Some of the planters from Ceylon have already commenced extensive clearing operations in Jahore; and if these succeed, the rest is but a question of time. A few rare and interesting plants yet linger in the jungle, notably, the curious pitcher plant (Nepenthes Rafflesiana), which, singularly enough, is one of the first plants to spring up after a jungle fire. Gleichenia dichotoma clothes some of the hill-sides here as freely as the common brake-fern at home.
One of the most singular of native plants, however, is that known as Amorphophallus campanulatus, a relative of the “Lords and Ladies” of our English woods; but this tropical species is of Titanic dimensions, producing a lurid spathe, nearly two feet in circumference, and exhaling the most fetid and repulsive of odours.
In rambling about the island one comes across fertile little gardens and groves of mangoes, mangosteen, and other fruit trees, the tenants being generally Chinamen. The bye-streets of the town present some novel sights to a stranger, being tenanted for the most part by Chinese artizans and shopkeepers, the workshops being generally quite open to the street. Blacksmiths, tin-workers, tailors and shoemakers, carpenters, coopers, and basket-makers here ply their callings, and turn out excellent work, although some of the tools used are exceedingly clumsy in appearance from our own point of view.
Passing down some of the streets beneath the shade of the piazzas, one meets with general stores of every description, each with its little stall right outside the door close to the path. Here you can purchase almost everything; tools, nails and screws, needles, pencils, cotton, cutlery, ammunition, old Tower muskets—indeed nearly everything in the way of hardware goods, whether Chinese or European. The European goods are such as are especially made for this market, and the prices are surprisingly low.