"We would like to go over to Johore and see what the main-land is like, but we haven't time for the journey. There is a fine road across the island, to where you can take a boat and cross the strait. It is a drive of about fifteen miles, and is said to be very interesting, as it takes you through forests of palms, and past plantations of pepper and gambier. Perhaps you don't know what gambier is? We didn't till we came to the East.
"It is the dried and refined juice of a plant that grows in Malacca, and is much used in dyeing and tanning, and also for stiffening silks. Great quantities of it are shipped from Singapore to Europe, and it forms an important item in the commerce of the place.
"The Maharajah of Johore is the son of the one from whom, in 1819, the English bought the island of Singapore. They gave sixty thousand dollars cash, and pay an annual subsidy of twenty thousand dollars; and they have kept on paying it without complaint. As the place is an excellent market for everything that the region produces, the Maharajah has become rich, and is on the best of terms with the English; he frequently visits the governor and is visited by him in return, and when any person of distinction comes here he is invited to stop as long as he likes at Johore. The Maharajah is a strict Mohammedan, but he has adopted many of the features of European life in his household. He has a French cook, and his dinners are served à la European. When entertaining visitors from England or America, he generally wears a dress-suit after the European manner; and he has so far overcome the prejudices of his religion as to invite ladies to his table.
"The currency of Singapore is the dollar, or, to be more explicit, the Spanish dollar. It is divided into one hundred cents, like our dollar, and all transactions are reckoned in this currency. But you find all kinds of money in circulation—English, French, American, Dutch, and Spanish; and if you want rupees, or any other Eastern currency, you will have no difficulty in getting it. The cosmopolitan character of Singapore is very well illustrated in the many varieties of coin in circulation.
"We have found a new type of mankind here—the Eurasian.
"You will possibly ask, 'What is the Eurasian?'
A NEW TYPE OF MANKIND.
"The word is compounded of 'Europe' and 'Asia,' as you can easily perceive, and the man who bears that name is of mixed European and Asiatic blood. The most of them have adopted the European dress and manners, and refuse to associate with the natives, while, on the other hand, they are not admitted to European society. Consequently they are in an unhappy position, as they are neither the one nor the other, and there does not appear to be any recognized place for them. They have been said to combine the vices of both their parent races, with the good qualities of neither; there are some men of ability among them, but, on the whole, the remark has a great deal of truth in it.