The coolies are paid by piece-work,
and are earning just now about one shilling and sixpence per day.
Road-making and other labor is performed by Klings, who get one
shilling a day.
The tin is smelted during the night in a very rude furnace, with most
ingenious Chinese bellows, is then run into moulds made of sand, and
turned out as slabs weighing 66 lbs. each. The export duty on tin is
the chief source of revenue. Close to the smelting furnaces there are
airy sheds with platforms along each side, divided into as many beds as
there are Chinamen. A bed consists only of a mat and a mosquito-net.
There are all the usual joss arrangements, and time is measured by the
burning of joss-sticks. Several rain-cloaks, made of palm leaves, were
hanging up. These, and nearly all the other articles consumed by this
large population are imported from China.
Our Chinese host then took us to some rooms which he had built for a
cool retreat, to which, in anticipation of our visit, he had conveyed
champagne, sherry, and bitter beer! His look of incredulity when we
said that we preferred tea, was most amusing; but on our persisting, he
produced delicious tea with Chinese sweetmeats, and Huntley and
Palmer's cocoa-nut biscuits.
