there to Singapore. They
arrived in the brig _Horatio_, and consisted of 80 convicts transported
from Madras, of whom 73 males and 1 female were for life, and 6 male
convicts on short sentences. On the 25th of the same month another batch
was received, also convicts from Bencoolen. These consisted of 122
convicts transported from Bengal, of whom 88 males and 1 female were for
life, and 33 for short terms. When these Indian convicts were landed at
Singapore they were placed at first in an open shed, or godown (from the
Malay word "godong," a shed), which stood on the site where the present
public offices stand, with only four free petty officers, or "peons,"
natives of Chittagong in the Bengal presidency, in charge of them.
Subsequently temporary buildings, to contain 1,200 to 2,000 convicts,
were erected near the Hindu temple, then situated near the Brass Basa
Canal, and at a considerable cost it is given as L13,199 (see Plate
IX.). They were all located in these sheds, and there was little or no
prison control over them; only, occasionally, an officer of the police
came and called the roll in order to report to Government that all were
present. These convicts were afterwards detailed to the work of filling
up the mud flat before referred to as the site of the present
"Commercial Square." For this purpose they carried the soil from near the
Hindu temple and from Pearls Hill. Mr. Bonham, the Resident, finding
that the convicts worked willingly, and were well behaved, discharged
the free "peons," or warders, and selected five Madrasees and five
Bengalees from their number to supervise their fellow-convicts. This
was, as far as we gather, the first trial of the system of convict
warders at Singapore, possibly the first venture of the kind made in any
penal establishment. As convicts continued to arrive from India, many of
those from Bencoolen were constituted warders over their fellows, in the
proportion of one warder to every twenty convicts. Each warder was
granted a monthly wage of $3.00 in addition to his rations and clothing,
with the usual blanket given to each convict once a year. In addition to
his ordinary rations, clothing, and annual blanket, each convict
received a monthly allowance of 50 cents (say 2s.) a month, to
purchase condiments and salt. A European overseer was placed in
immediate charge of the convicts, and a Superintendent over the whole
convict establishment, this responsible duty first falling upon