de or industry will be established to check its future rise and
prosperity, I can have no doubt." "I am justified in saying thus much on
the authority of the Supreme Government of India, and on the authority
of those who are most likely to have weight in the councils of our
nation at home."

Referring to difficulties which had to be encountered on the
establishment of the freedom of the port, he says, "In the commanding
station in which my public duty has placed me, I have had an opportunity
of, in a great measure, investigating and determining the merits of the
case, and the result renders it a duty on my part, and which I perform
with much satisfaction, to express my most unqualified approbation of
the honourable principles which actuated the merchants of Singapore on
that occasion."

We give the above extracts to show the rapid advance that had been made
in the first five years of the settlement's existence, owing mainly to
the sagacity, forethought, and wisdom of its eminent founder, and we
have added the population up to this period to show its steady rise and
progress.

It was, however, in January, 1824, that the first regular census was
taken. The population then consisted of 74 Europeans, 16 Armenians, 15
Arabs, 4,580 Malays, 3,317 Chinese, 756 natives of India, and 1,925
Bugis, making a total of 10,683. It was in this year that Singapore was
first mentioned in the House of Commons, in a remark made by Mr.
Canning, who had been nominated Governor-General of India in 1822, but
did not go out to that country, that "Singapore in six years would
produce spices sufficient for the consumption of Great Britain and her
colonies"--a prophecy not yet fulfilled.

In May of the same year the Resident made a voyage round the island in
the ship _Malabar_, 380 tons burden, to view the boundary of the island
and to take formal possession; and it was while on this voyage that the
British flag was planted on the island of "Pulo Obin," an island which
has since largely supplied the town of Singapore with granite for making
roads and also for building purposes. The Government quarries situated
upon it were subsequently worked almost entirely by transmarine
convicts, of which more will be said hereafter.

[Illustration: ORIGINAL HUTS FOR CONVICTS, SINGAPORE

(From _Life of Sir Stamford Raffles_).

_Plate IX._]

On the 18th of April, 1825, the first batch of convicts transported
from India to Bencoolen were transferred from