The taste of the half-fluid juice of the poppy is sweetish and oily, but the odour of the chandú when heated, which one of the workmen addicted to smoking insisted on our regarding as one of the most valuable of perfumes, is so disagreeable as almost to cause nausea. We saw numbers of smokers, athwart the filthy gossamer-like curtains, utterly stupefied, and lying carelessly stretched out on the hard bedsteads, the pipe fallen out of their hands, and the lamp on the table in front of their couch extinguished. They, however, did not want the curtain for the purpose of preventing their being disturbed in the luxurious enjoyment of their beatific dreams; for they continued in a state resembling death itself, from which hardly anything could possibly rouse them so long as the effects of the poisonous drug lasted. Others of the smokers were so affected by it as to have utterly lost their senses, and seemed on the whole entirely indifferent to all that was passing around them. One of the workmen, who was in a high state of excitement, and was uncommonly talkative, informed us however that he had to smoke about one shilling's worth of opium ere he could feel its effect, that there was nothing more annoying or insupportable than mere partial stupefaction, when one had no more money wherewith to buy opium so as to be able to get into a proper state of somnolence. The entire system at such times gets into a frightful state of irritation; there is severe headache, a sensation of pressure on the stomach, nausea, in a word all the ill-effects
of the use of opium, without any of its more agreeable sensations. The state of intoxication and drowsiness usually lasts from forty to sixty minutes, when consciousness gradually returns, without any ill-effects being experienced at the moment from the inhalation of the poison.
In Singapore, where comparatively high wages are paid, and the Chinese population is the most numerous, the annual consumption of opium amounts to about 330 grains per head. In the Island of Java, where, in consequence of certain limits prescribed by government, the Chinese element amounts to but 1⁄100th of the entire population, the consumption is hardly forty grains per head. Even in China, where this perilous narcotic is consumed in such enormous quantities, the amount sold only indicates 140 grains for each smoker, which however is chiefly attributable to the poverty of the populace, by whom this luxury is unattainable. Unfortunately we could get no reliable information as to the number of opium-smokers, and the quantity of opium consumed, in Singapore. Mr. Allen, a North American missionary, estimates the number of persons who surrender themselves to this practice throughout the Chinese Empire, at from 4-5,000,000, who annually consume about 50,000 chests of opium. The quantity consumed by each smoker daily varies in an extraordinary degree. At first the beginner cannot inhale above two or three grains at a time, but gradually, as he becomes habituated, the dose increases, till the confirmed smokers
consume as much as 100 grains daily!! Many Chinese spend two-thirds of their earnings in the purchase of this drug, which has become for them a necessity of life.
The practice of eating opium in the form of pills, which prevails in every Mahometan country in the East, and has in a special degree been readily adopted by the disciples of the Koran, in consequence of the prohibition of wine, would seem, judging by the researches of physicians, to be much less injurious and much slower in affecting the human system than smoking the opium, or otherwise bringing it directly in contact with the lungs, while the effects of the former practice is likewise different.
We shall have an opportunity, when describing our stay in Chinese waters, to revert to this most remarkable and most profitable, but at the same time most iniquitous, monopoly of the (late) East India Company, which crushes millions of human beings in the most appalling and hopeless of all slaveries, and against the continuance of which the Chinese government has repeatedly but ineffectually set its face. The words of the idol-worshipping Emperor of China, when in 1840 he was solicited to convert the importation of opium into a source of revenue to the state, were worthy of a Christian monarch: "It is true," said the Chinese ruler, "I cannot hinder the importation of this subtle poison; infamous men in the lust for gain will out of covetousness or sensuality set at nought the fulfilment of my wishes;—but they shall
never induce me to enrich myself by the vices and the wretchedness of my people!"
Despite the very small proportion of Europeans resident in Singapore, and that almost the entire time of those few seems to be absorbed in business, there is nevertheless considerable intellectual activity. Several newspapers in the English language, among which the "Singapore Free Press," edited by Mr. A. Logan, occupies the foremost rank, supply information as to all that is worth knowing in every part of the East Indies, while the "Journal of the Indian Archipelago," which has been for many years so ably and carefully conducted by the well-known and widely-famous J. H. Logan (brother of the editor of the "Press"), is a veritable mine of information for the naturalist, who wishes to make the history of the Indian Archipelago and its inhabitants the object of his study. It contains exceedingly useful data for extending our knowledge of these very remarkable countries, susceptible as they are of such extraordinary development.
The colony also boasts a Museum of Natural History adjoining a library with several thousand volumes, and a reading-room, copiously supplied with newspapers and periodicals, the whole forming what is called the "Singapore Institution." This enterprise was founded by shares of 40 dollars each, and is supported by an annual subscription of 24 dollars by each member, which confers the privilege of using the well-selected library of books, and a great number of English and French papers and periodicals. The small ethnographic
collection consists chiefly of specimens from Borneo, Sumatra, and the adjoining islands.