Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume II / (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the / Austrian Navy.

by Ritter von Karl Scherzer

Among the educational institutions most deserving of attention and recognition must be specially noticed the school for the instruction of Malay boys and girls, under the management and preceptorship of that most deserving missionary, Mr. B. P. Keasberry, who has pursued a career of useful activity in this Archipelago during thirty years past. The parents of the children taken in here have to contribute to their support, and to leave them there for at least ten years, under the affectionate spiritual care of the missionary, and must not remove them till after the expiry of that period. This condition was rendered necessary by the fickleness of the Malay nature, which otherwise would frequently withdraw the children from the supervision of the missionary at the very moment when they were beginning to become amenable to the influences of instruction in Christianity and civilization. The Institution is supported partly by voluntary contributions, partly by the profits of a printing business, in which, however, hardly anything is printed except educational and religious works in the Malay language. Mr. Keasberry was so kind as to present us with a small collection of the works thus published during the past year, comprising among others a dictionary of the English and Malay languages, the New Testament, a volume of Natural History, a Manual of Geography, a Universal History, a Biblical History, and numerous educational works in Malay for the use of the pupils.

In the course of a visit we paid to the Police Court we had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with Mr. Windsor Carl, the well-known author of numerous valuable works relating to the Indian Archipelago and the Papuan Negroes, a gentleman whose career in life has been of the strangest, at present holding the position of magistrate in Singapore, where his great experience and his thorough acquaintance with the Malay language must be of the utmost service to government. The audience assembled in the Court room, in which only causes under 50 Rs. are tried, consisted for the most part of Chinese. Almost all the officials, clerks, inspectors, and policemen were coloured. In one month 414 causes came on for trial, of which 315 were disposed of by the imposition on the culprits of fines amounting in the aggregate to 5975 Rs., but of this sum only 5105 Rs. were realized. The largest number of sentences are passed in March, because the Chinese celebrate the New Year on the first day of that month, and accordingly the largest number of cases of assault, &c., occur at that period. The police employés registered in that period above 100 cases of transgressions of the law. The New Year is however, as must be remembered, the solitary festival which John Chinaman takes out of his appointed work, since recognizing as they do neither Sunday nor feast-day they continue hard at work for all the rest of the year. The majority of decisions refer to prohibited games; and whoever knows the inextinguishable love of the Chinese populace for spending their time in gambling, will readily comprehend

how in a single year there occurred above 2000 cases in which the law was violated. While we were in the justice-room, a paper was handed in to the presiding magistrate, in which an English sailor, at that moment in hospital, urgently requested that he might leave the same, inasmuch as he felt no longer sure of his life, owing to the numbers daily brought thither to die of cholera. In fact the hospital, and the localities adjacent, seemed to be the spots most seriously visited by the pestilence, so that the prayer of the petitioner to be removed from that neighbourhood was not altogether unfounded.

One highly interesting establishment, deserving of universal imitation, is the penal colony for criminals sentenced to transportation for life from all parts of India, and known as "The Convict Settlement." In order to comprehend the object and tendency of this institution, it seems necessary to premise certain remarks upon the political relation of Singapore to India at large. Singapore in conjunction with the colony of Malacca, which gives its name to the entire peninsula, and the island of Penang, including the district of Wellesley, form that range of British settlements in the Straits of Malacca which is usually known to the English as "The Straits Settlements." Up to quite a recent date, these colonies, founded almost exclusively in the interests of British commerce, were under the authority of the Indian government, and were in fact controlled from Calcutta. To the Directors of the East India Company, however, these settlements, of whose future destiny the mother country has hitherto taken but little heed,

notwithstanding their enormous political and commercial importance, appeared to be specially adapted as a place for maintaining common criminals, as also the more dangerous class of political offenders, and accordingly converted these settlements into penal colonies for the Indies, of which that of Singapore is the most important.

The director of this institution, Captain McNair, had the kindness to accompany the members of the Novara expedition through the extensive buildings, for the most part only one storey high, but well adapted for this purpose, and to furnish us with much information on the various particulars and special matters of interest relating to the establishment. Ever since the year 1854, the wretched, confined, wooden huts thatched with straw, in which up to that period the unfortunate criminals were confined, have been removed, and in their stead lofty, airy, good-sized apartments have been substituted. At the period of our visit in April 1858, there were over 2000 transported for life, and 245 sentenced to various terms of from five to ten years, confined here. All the public buildings of the island, churches, hospitals, barracks, works in the streets, sometimes constructions of a most expensive nature, were executed throughout by criminals. After sixteen years' good conduct, the prisoner was entitled to a "ticket of leave," authorising him to settle within the jurisdiction of the island as a free colonist, coupled with the condition of presenting himself once a month before the superintendent of the settlement. In case of bad conduct,

or failure, or irregularity in fulfilling such stipulations, these concessions are revoked. All the overseers of the convict settlement, who receive monthly pay at the rate of from one to two dollars, are prisoners who have already given proof of their desire to return to a better mode of life, and it is well worth remark, that the 2000 convicts, consisting for the most part of the very dregs of the various Indian races, and condemned for grave crimes to perpetual imprisonment, are under the charge of a single white turnkey, and by him maintained in perfect order and propriety of demeanour. Besides this one official there is only a small detachment of Indian soldiers, from twelve to fifteen in number, stationed at the settlement as a measure of precaution. The best evidence of the excellent system on which this institution is administered, will be found in the published reports of its health, from which it appears that of the 2000 there confined, there were but forty sick at the very period when the cholera was committing such terrific ravages in the town among the poorer classes, and the change of the monsoon had been accompanied by great sickness and general unhealthiness. The convicts go to work at six every morning, and return to the barracks about 4 P.M., the rest of the day being spent in preparing their victuals, consisting of rice, vegetables, cayenne-pepper, and fruit. As most of those confined are Hindoos and profess Brahminism, they bathe several times a day, in a large tank filled with excellent water. This wise religious custom must in such a sultry climate conduce in a marked

degree to the preservation of their health, by its beneficial and refreshing action upon the frame.

Some of the convicts are also employed in manufacturing cordage, ropes, twine, &c., of the fibres of the wild plantain (Musa textilis), the Ramé-shrub (Boehmeria nivea), and the wild pine-apple (Bromelia Ananas or Ananassa Sativa). All these textures are of excellent quality, and possess all the best properties of Russian hemp-fabrics, at a considerable reduction of cost.