ey in colour, with here and
there black patches or nodules of hornblende. It occurs in large fluted
boulders, and was wrought by the convicts by fire, or by blasting with
gun-powder, or split by pointed chisels and large hammers. Its weight
was 168 lbs. per cubic foot. The excellent quality of this granite led
the Government of India to approve of the construction by the late
Colonel Eraser, C.B., of several courses for the Alguada Reef
lighthouse, which was built upon a dangerous reef off the coast of
Burmah. Our department looked after the preparation of some of these
courses, and forwarded them by ship to Burmah.

WELL DIGGING.

It is known to everyone how capable the Indians are in the sinking of
wells, and that with many Orientals it is a work of great merit to build
one. As two were required for Fort Canning, we were soon able to select
men fitted for this special work amongst the third class convicts, who,
many of them, begged to be allowed to take part in their construction.
After a careful set of borings, we came upon water at a depth of 180 and
120 feet respectively. They were eventually dug out to these depths, and
steined to six feet in diameter by the use of sound and hard bricks from
the convict kilns. The water rose to a height of 80 feet from the
surface of the ground, and they were provided with lift and force pumps
for the convenience of the troops in garrison. It was a heavy job for
the convicts, but they performed it with eagerness and alacrity.

Chapter X

STORIES ABOUT INDIAN CONVICTS AND EUROPEAN LOCAL PRISONERS

No. 1

Most of the convicts sentenced to the Straits Settlements for short
periods of transportation were, as we have said, usually retained in the
convict jail at Malacca. Amongst these, in the sixties, was a very
remarkable man, and known to both of us, of the name of "Tickery Banda,"
who was a native of Ceylon, and had received a sentence of seven years
in transportation for a crime committed in that island, though of which
he declared, like many of his congeners, he was perfectly innocent.

A story in connection with this man is given in Cameron's _Tropical
Possessions in Malayan India_, which is quite worthy of repetition here.

When the English took possession of Kandy, Tickery Banda and two or
three brothers, children of the first minister of the King of the
Kandians, were taken and educated in English by the then Governor of the
island. Tickery afterwards became