A GROUP OF JACOONS.
Further questioning elicited the information that the Jacoons were a primitive race of men who lived in the forests of Johore, and are popularly supposed to dwell in trees, and to subsist on fruits and nuts. Johore is a province on the main-land of the Malay peninsula, and separated from the island of Singapore by a narrow strait of water. The chief of this province is a man of superior intelligence, and lives on friendly terms with his English neighbors. Since the English settled at Singapore, he has established saw-mills, and made a handsome revenue from the sale of lumber; and he has opened up his territory to settlement by Chinese and other agriculturists. The Jacoons are supposed to be the original inhabitants; they have as little as possible to do with the Malays, and are quite distinct from them in language and features. They are a peaceful people with few wants, and, as the country produces abundantly, they have little occasion to wear themselves out with hard work.
Walking about the streets, or sitting in the shade of the numerous trees, were a few Parsees with their rimless hats, and wearing garments that were more than half European in pattern. They are called sometimes the Jews of the East, from their remarkable shrewdness in business, and their steady progress in the direction of wealth; they are said to be able to accumulate money under very discouraging circumstances, and it has been remarked that a Parsee will grow rich where any other man in the world would starve. Some branches of trade in the East are almost monopolized by the Parsees. A single Parsee house has more than half of the Chinese opium trade in its hands, and has grown enormously rich, while its competitors have lost money. Like the Jews, to whom they are sometimes compared, the Parsees have no country they can call their own. They came originally from Persia, and settled in the North of India, where the most of them are to be found to-day.
GARRI WITH A LOAD OF SAILORS.
There were Klings, or men from the South of India, waiting for work on the corners, or offering their garris, or carriages, for the use of our friends. Most of the carriages for hire in Singapore are driven by these Klings, who are a lithe race, with great powers of endurance, and equally great powers of rascality. A garri is a four-wheeled vehicle drawn by a single horse: some of the garris have seats for the driver, while others have no place for him, but leave him to walk or run by the side of his beast. The horse is as small in proportion as the man, and the boys were greatly amused to see one of these vehicles with a party of sailors who had just come on shore from an English ship. Three of them were inside, while one was stretched along the roof of the garri, which he more than covered. They were evidently enjoying themselves, and the driver had his nose in the air, and was doubtless counting up the profits of his day's work, and feeling happy over the result.
The boys were surprised to learn that, while there was a population of more than a hundred thousand Chinese, Malays, Klings, and other Orientals at Singapore, there were not more than a thousand Europeans living there, exclusive of the English garrison. Of these Europeans the English were the most numerous; the rest were Germans, French, Portuguese, Dutch, and Italians, in the order named, and it was said that the Germans were increasing more rapidly than the English, and threatened to have all the business of the place in their hands in course of time.
While our friends were discussing the peculiarities of the population of Singapore, their walk brought them to "The Square," as the commercial centre is called; and, as the hours of business had arrived, the Doctor proceeded to attend to his financial affairs, and learn, in a practical way, the mysteries of banking at the capital city of the Straits of Malacca.