The Chinamen Had Given Up Their National Costume And Adopted The
Malay Dress, And Could Then Hardly Be Distinguished From The
Natives Of The Island - An Indication Of The Close Affinity Of The
Malayan And Mongolian Races.
Under the thick shade of some mango-
trees close by the house, several women-merchants were selling
cotton goods;
For here the women trade and work for the benefit
of their husbands, a custom which Mahometan Malays never adopt.
Fruit, tea, cakes, and sweetmeats were brought to us; many questions
were asked about our business and the state of trade in
Singapore, and we then took a walk to look at the village. It was
a very dull and dreary place; a collection of narrow lanes
bounded by high mud walls, enclosing bamboo houses, into some of
which we entered and were very kindly received.
During the two days that we remained here, I walked out into the
surrounding country to catch insects, shoot birds, and spy out
the nakedness or fertility of the land. I was both astonished and
delighted; for as my visit to Java was some years later, I had
never beheld so beautiful and well cultivated a district out of
Europe. A slightly undulating plain extends from the seacoast
about ten or twelve miles inland, where it is bounded by a wide
range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, marked
out by dense clumps of cocoa-nut palms, tamarind and other fruit
trees, are dotted about in every direction; while between then
extend luxuriant rice-grounds, watered by an elaborate system of
irrigation that would be the pride of the best cultivated parts
of Europe.
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