"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 the rivers, and many Chinese and other natives fell a prey to their voracity. 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 human flesh, and often display remarkable ingenuity in gratifying their appetites. Regular man-eater crocodiles existed in some of the rivers in the Straits Settlements, notably in the rivers in Province Wellesley; but many were found also in the rivers in Singapore and Malacca, as well as on the sea coast. Some of these man-eaters were very bold, and would attack natives in their canoes, sometimes getting under the canoe and upsetting it in order to devour the occupants. Cases have been known of persons being snatched out of boats. A case of this kind happened in the Prye River, in Province Wellesley. The supervisor in charge of the public works was proceeding in a ferry boat with some convicts to repair the boundary pillar, situated some distance up the river, when suddenly a splash was heard, and his convict orderly, who was squatting in the bow of the sampan, or boat, uttering a cry, stood up, at the same time pointing to the stern of the boat. Upon looking round, a Chinaman, who had been seated in the stern of the boat, was found to be missing. A crocodile had, as it were, shot up out of the water, and, seizing the Chinaman by the waist, had drawn him down into the river, and nothing more was seen of them at the time. Shortly afterwards, a canoe with a Malay man and his wife in it was upset near the same spot by a crocodile, and both of them disappeared. A little later a Kling, who had been in the habit of diving for mud oysters near Qualla Prye Ferry for many years, and had repeatedly been cautioned about his danger in doing so, was missed, and it was ascertained that he had been seen diving for oysters as usual, and had suddenly disappeared, and had not been seen to come up again.
This sort of thing went on for some time, and the crocodiles could not be caught. At last the convicts stationed at Prye town convict lines succeeded in capturing a large crocodile, and this is how they managed it. They prepared a bait by tying a strong hook underneath the body of a pariah dog. One end of a piece of light iron chain[17] was fastened to this hook; the other end was fastened to a log of very light wood as a buoy. They then went in a boat to that part of the river where the greater number of casualties had occurred. Here they drifted about, at the same time pinching the dog's ears and otherwise tormenting him to make him yelp. After watching the surface of the water for some time, they descried the V mark on the water indicating the approach of a crocodile; then, throwing the dog and buoy overboard, they pulled away for some distance to watch the result.. They saw the crocodile rapidly approaching the dog, who was swimming for his life. Suddenly there was a howl, and the dog disappeared. Then they watched the buoy, which would sometimes disappear under the water and then rise again to the surface; and in this manner they traced the crocodile, and followed him into a small creek, where he crawled on shore; and there they dispatched him with musket balls. This crocodile measured fourteen feet from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail, and was said to be the largest specimen captured at that time, but they have been known to reach from eighteen to twenty feet in length. Upon opening him a human leg and a pair of Chinaman's trousers were discovered, and it was concluded that this was one of the man-eaters.
As an illustration of the effect of shock upon the human system at the sight of wild beasts, we may mention a case of a Malay fisherman who was shrimping on the bar at the mouth of the Krian River (Province Wellesley), when a crocodile approached him from behind and seized him by the thigh. The Malay drew his parang and hacked away at the creature's nose until he let go. Some convicts stationed at Nebong Tubal and a Malay police peon saw what was happening and put off in a boat to his assistance. They rescued the poor fellow, and the police conveyed him at once by boat to the hospital at Butterworth, where his wounds, which were not very serious, were attended to; but the shock to the nervous system was so great that the man lost his reason, and would constantly leave his cot and walk down the hospital ward, moving his hands up and down, as if in the act of shrimping. He died shortly after. A similar case of shock, and a well-known story in the Straits Settlements, occurred in Province Wellesley, but this was from a tiger. A Roman Catholic priest was returning to his house after breakfasting with 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 of him. The priest, with great presence of mind, suddenly opened his Chinese umbrella in the face of the tiger; the animal gave a leap round to one side, and the priest repeated the umbrella movement. The tiger then gave another leap round to the other side, and the umbrella action was again performed. This was renewed till the tiger, who evidently was not hungry, and had taken alarm, made a disappointed growl and bounded away into the high lalang grass, and the priest hastened on his way home. On reaching his house he took a cold bath, to brace up his nerves as he said; but the next day he was confined to his bed, and died a fortnight after the event, due entirely, it was said, to the shock that he had sustained.
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No. 8
As we have already intimated, the house of correction at Singapore was under the management and control of the Convict Department; and there were 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 Chinese waters about 1859, his ship was on the Singapore station for some little time; and upon his arrival he sent in to the house of correction a very incorrigible man-of-war's man named John —— (we will not give his surname, for he may be yet alive). This man had been several times punished while the ship was in China, and had been twice sentenced to be flogged. We heard all about him from the officer of the ship who had brought him ashore.
His sentence was three weeks' imprisonment: the first week in solitary confinement on bread and water, and congee or rice gruel diet. Upon his receipt into the prison, after the usual routine, he was placed in one of the penal cells, and bread and water set before him. Before the cell door was closed, he looked hard at the chief warder, saying, "Take away that filth; I won't eat it." The chief warder reported to the Superintendent that the man in the cells was a dangerous-looking character, and he was afraid we should have trouble with him, for he had never seen a man with such a hang-dog look. The morning of the second day he had touched neither bread nor water, though fresh had been given him, and in a churlish manner he said to the chief warder, who had remonstrated with him, "I'll eat the tail of my shirt first, before I eat what you bring me." The doctor visited him, and made his report to the Superintendent that he was a strong man, and in excellent health, and that he might be safely left until hunger obliged him to eat, but that he would see him twice a day.
Upon the afternoon of the second day the Superintendent himself, upon his inspecting the prisoners in the penal cells, entered this prisoner's cell, and the following dialogue ensued: "What is your name?" "What is that to you?" "But I am the Superintendent of this jail, and I ask you a simple question, and I want a simple answer." Then looking at the Superintendent with a disrespectful air the prisoner said, "Look at my warrant 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 ——" The Superintendent then said, "Now I want to know what part of England you come 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 a Cornishman, are you?" replied the Superintendent. "I know Saltash very well. It is a fine old place. And I know the Viaduct, and the cottages over against it. I wonder if you were born there in one of those cottages? Perhaps you were, and have a mother now living there; and if you have, and she knew that her son was now in an Indian jail, you would break that old woman's heart, that you would." This ended the conversation, and the cell door was shut.