It Is Supposed That There Is A Sufficient Supply To Last
For Ages, Even Though The Demand For Tin For New Purposes Is Always On
The Increase.
It is tin mining which has brought the Chinese in such
numbers to these States, and as miners and smelters they are equally
efficient and persevering.
In 1828, the number of Chinese working the
mines here was one thousand; and in the same year they were massacred
by the Malays. They now number ten thousand, and under British
protection have nothing to fear.
It is still the New Year holidays, and hundreds of Chinamen were
lounging about, and every house was gayly decorated. The Malays never
join house to house, the Chinese always do so, and this village has its
streets and plaza. The houses are all to a certain extent
fire-proof - that is, when a fire occurs, and the attap-thatched roofs
are burned, the houses below, which are mostly shops, are safe. These
shops, some of which are very large, are nearly dark. They deal mainly
in Chinese goods and favorite Chinese articles of food, fireworks,
mining tools, and kerosene oil. In one shop twenty "assistants," with
only their loose cotton trousers on, were sitting at round tables
having a meal - not their ordinary diet, I should think, for they had
seventeen different sorts of soups and stews, some of them abominations
to our thinking.
We visited the little joss-house, very gaudily decorated, the main
feature of the decorations being two enormous red silk umbrellas,
exquisitely embroidered in gold and silks. The crowds in this village
remind me of Canton, but the Chinese look anything but picturesque
here, for none of them - or at all events, only their "Capitans" - wear
the black satin skull cap; and their shaven heads, with the small patch
of hair which goes into the composition of the pigtail, look very ugly.
The pig-tail certainly begins with this lock of hair, but the greater
part of it is made up of silk or cotton thread plaited in with the
hair, and blue or red strands of silk in a pigtail indicate mourning or
rejoicing. None of the Chinese here wear the beautiful long robes used
by their compatriots in China and Japan. The rich wear a white,
shirt-like garment of embroidered silk crepe over their trousers and
petticoat, and the poorer only loose blue or brown cotton trousers, so
that one is always being reminded of the excessive leanness of their
forms. Some of the rich merchants invited us to go in and drink
champagne, but we declined everything but tea, which is ready all day
long in tea-pots kept hot in covered baskets very thickly padded, such
as are known with us as "Norwegian Kitchens."
In the middle of the village there is a large, covered, but open-sided
building like a market, which is crowded all day - and all night too - by
hundreds of these poor, half-naked creatures standing round the gaming
tables, silent, eager, excited, staking every cent they earn on the
turn of the dice, living on the excitement of their gains - a truly sad
spectacle. Probably we were the first European ladies who had ever
walked through the gambling-house, but the gamblers were too intent
even to turn their heads. There also they are always drinking tea. Some
idea of the profits made by the men who "farm" the gambling licenses
may be gained from the fact that the revenue derived by the Government
from the gambling "farms" is over 900 pounds a year.
Spirits are sold in three or four places; and the license to sell them
brings in nearly 700 pounds a year, but a drunken Chinaman is never
seen. There are a few opium inebriates, lean like skeletons, and very
vacant in expression; and every coolie smokes his three whiffs of opium
every night. Only a few of the richer Chinamen have wives, and there
are very few women, as is usual in a mining population. A good many
roads have been made in the State, and the Chinese are building
buggies, gharries, and wagons, and many of the richer ones own them and
import Sumatra ponies to draw them. To say that the Chinese make as
good emigrants as the British is barely to give them their due. They
have equal stamina and are more industrious and thrifty, and besides
that they are always sober, can bear with impunity the fiercest
tropical heat, and can thrive and save where Englishmen would starve.
The immense immigration of Chinese, all affiliated to clubs or secret
societies, might be a great risk to the peace of the State were it not
that they recognize certain leaders known as "Capitans China," who
contrive to preserve order, so far as is known by a wholesome influence
merely; and who in all cases, in return for the security which property
enjoys under our flag, work cordially with the Resident in all that
concerns the good of the State. How these "Capitans" are elected, and
how they exercise their authority, is as inscrutable as most else
belonging to the Chinese. The Chinese seem not so much broadly
patriotic as provincial or clannish, and the "Hoeys," or secret
societies, belong to the different southern provinces. The fights
between the factions, and the way in which the secret societies screen
criminals by false swearing and other means, are among the woes of the
Governor and Lieutenant-Governors of these Settlements. Though they get
on very well up here, thanks to the "Capitan China," the clans live in
separate parts of the village, have separate markets and gaming houses,
and a wooden arch across the street divides the two "Nations."
We went to pay complimentary visits for the New Year to these
"Capitans" with the Malay interpreter, and were received with a curious
mixture of good-will and solemnity. Wine, tea and sweet-meats were
produced at each house. Their houses are very rude, considering their
ample means, and have earthen floors.
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