IL BUILDINGS, SINGAPORE 77

Plate XI

MAIN GATE OF SINGAPORE JAIL 78

Plate XII

DUFFADAR RAM SINGH 84

Plate XIII

HEAD TINDAL MAISTRI 86

Plate XIV

CONVICT OF SECOND CLASS AND MUNSHI 88

Plate XV

CONVICTS OF FIFTH CLASS, AND FIFTH CLASS SECTION A 90

Plate XVA

CHETOO--CONVICT OF FIFTH CLASS 92

Plate XVI

CATHEDRAL, SINGAPORE 97

Plate XVII

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, GARDEN, AND MORTAR MILL 101

Plate XVIII

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SINGAPORE, APPROACHING COMPLETION 102

Plate XIX

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SINGAPORE, COMPLETED 104

Plate XX

CONVICTS STONE-QUARRYING 111

[Illustration: Plate I.]

Chapter I

EARLY RECORDS OF BENCOOLEN AND OBSERVATIONS ABOUT CONVICTS

In opening this account of the old convict jail at Singapore, it will be
necessary to refer, as we have said, in some little detail to the
history of the settlements of Bencoolen, Penang, and Malacca, to which
convicts from India were first sent, prior to their reception into the
Singapore prison.

The first penal settlement was Bencoolen, the Banka-Ulu[1] of the
Malays, to which they were transported from India about the year 1787,
much about the same time that transportation to Australia for English
convicts was sanctioned by our laws.

[Footnote 1: Literally, swollen at the source.]

Bencoolen was singularly adapted as a receptacle for convict labour; it
was not a populous place when we took it in 1685, nor, as far as we can
gather, had the population much increased up to the year 1787, and the
few Sumatrans and Malays that were its inhabitants were an indolent
race, and preferred a life of ease to any kind of labour. They were
content to get their livelihood from fishing, and they had no artificial
wants. They would occasionally work upon pepper plantations, and would
bring the berries to Bencoolen for sale to British merchants. Labour was
therefore wanted here, and the East India Company thought that by its
introduction they would make of Bencoolen a thriving settlement; but as
it turned out they were greatly disappointed, for both peppe