through which many of the largest China ships have sailed. This channel, which was first discovered by Sir Home Popham, is of the greatest importance to the trade of the island. To the above advantages is to be added the very important one of its easy access at all seasons of the year: the excellence of the inner harbour and the passage from Prince of Wales's Island to Bengal,being certain at all seasons of the year, gives it a decided superiority, as a naval port, over Bombay. Pulo Jerajah is above five miles from the point, is three long, and extends nearly to the south end of the island. It is hilly, covered with fine timber, and abounding with small streams of excellent water. There are several spots well adapted for erecting the buildings required for a marine arsenal. Careening wharfs can be constructed with the utmost facility, there being five fathom water close to the rocks, and is capable of being defended against any force. Its situation is well adapted for a naval hospital, being high, open, and healthy. The island produces timber, fit for every purpose of ship building, and possesses one very important advantage over every other place, in Indii, in our possession, being able to furnish masts of any dimensions. Lower masts of one piece have been provided for 74 Gun ships. On Pulo Dunding, seventy miles to the southward, crooked timber, of any size, can be procured. The following is a list of the names and qualities of some of the different sorts of timber found on Prince of Wales's Island, viz. ditto, ditto. Madong, 1st sort.-Planks and beams for ships and houses, durable. durable. Ditto, 2nd do.-Ditto, ditto, crooked. Poone, red.-Yards and topmasts, great length. Ditto, gray.-Ditto, ditto, ditto. Mangrove, red.-Posts for houses, beams thirty to fifty feet long, very durable. Ditto, white.-Not so durable as the red. Dammerlaut, 1st sort.-Keels for ships, and beams for houses, great lengi and size, very durable. Ditto, 2nd do. Ditto, ditto, dito. Bintang Ore.-The best wood for masts, of which his Majesty's ship Suffolk's lower masts were made, each of one stick. Red Wood.-Proper for furniture. Murboo-The best wood, to the Eastward, for ships and houses. Prince of Wales's Island is abundantly supplied with numerous streams of fine water flowing from the hills in every direction. Three or four of these streams, after traversing a great space, unite, and form the Penang river, which is the most considerable in the island, and discharges itself into the sea, about a mile to the southward of the town. All ships are supplied with water from this river, which must be carefully filled at half flood, otherwise it will be brackish. From the appearance of many places in the interior of the island, and the number of tombs which were discovered soon after the settlement was formed, the tradition of its being formerly inhabited seems entitled to credit. There is not, probably, any part of the world, at this day, where, in so small a space, so many different people are assembled together, or so great a variety of languages spoken; amongst them are British, Dutch, Portuguese, Armenians, Arabs, Parsees, Chinese, Chooliahs, Malays, Buggusses, Burmahs, Jawanese, &c. &c. &c. The Chinese form one of the most numerous and useful classes of the inhabitants; they may be. estimated to amount to between five and six thousand. The better sort of thein possess valuable estates in land and houses, and were the first planters of pepper. The lower orders exercise the different trades of carpenters, smiths, shoe-makers, &c. &c. they are labourers and fishermen, and supply the markets with vegetables. They are good workmen, and receive high wages; the greatest part of which, as they are expensive in their mode of living, is spent on the island. Every Chinaman makes it an invariable rule to send a certain portion of his earnings, annually, to his friends and relations in China. These people are addicted to gaming, and smoking opium, and immoderately fond of seeing plays acted, after the manner of their own country; though the audiences, on these occasions, are extremely numerous, the utmost or der, silence, and regularity is observed. During their holidays which continue a month, no consideration will induce a Chinaman to work: in this period the savings of a year are frequently dissipated in a few hours. They are, in general, a quiet, industrious people, and have proved a most valuable acquisition to the settlement; indeed, without them, it would have little, or no cultivation. The Chooliahs come from the coast of Coromandel; many of them are merchants, and are fixed inhabitants, and possess property to a very great amount; the greatest portion, however, of the Chocliahs reside on the island caly for a few months, when, having disposed of their goods, and purchased a fresh cargo, they retum to the coast. The Coolies and Boatmen are Chooliabs; those two descriptions of people remain one, two, or three years, according to circumstances, and then return to the coast. The Choolies are dispersed all over the Malay Peninsula, and are entrusted by the different rajahs with the chief management of their affairs; they are a quiet, useful people. The proportion of Malay inha. bitants is, fortunately, very small; they are an indolent, vindictive, and treacherous people, and, ge. nerally speaking, seem fit for little else but cutting down trees, at which they are very expertThey are incapable of any labour beyond the cultivation of paddy. When they procure a small quantity of rice and opium, no inducement, as long as those articles last, is sufficiently powerful to make them do any work. But though so rude and uncivilized a race, some of them are most excellent gold goldsmiths, and work, in fillagre, a very beautiful manner indeed. The Buggusses come from Borneo and the Celebes. Though commonly considered as Malays, their language is perfectly distinct, and, indeed, in every particular, they are a very different people; they are bold, independent, and enterprising; make good soldiers; and, if treated with kindness, are attached and faithful. They have a small town on the Penang river; their numbers have lately increased; many of their prows come here annually, and exchange their gold dust and clothes, for iron, opium, &c. &c. &c. The Burmahs are not numerous, they live in a small town by themselves, and subsist chiefly by fishing. The Parsees come from Bombay and Surat; some of the higher sort are merchants, the lower order are chiefly shipwrights, and are esteemed excellent workmen. They are remarkably quiet, wellbehaved people; it is much to be wished that their numbers were augmented, which will certainly be the case if the shipping of this port increases. In the year 1797, an account was taken of the inhabitants then resident on the island, exclusive of Europeans and the garrison, when the number was found to be six thousand nine hundred and thirtyseven. In the year 1801-2, the lieutenant-governor ordered another account to be taken, by which it appeared there were seven hundred and twenty-three persons who possessed landed property, and whose wives, children, relations, friends, servants, and slaves, amounted to nine thousand five hundred and eighty-seven; of which number one thousand two hundred and twenty-two, only, were slaves ;--the total amounts to ten thousand three hundred and ten. But this enumeratien of the inhabitants, though made with every degree of care and attention, cannot, on account of the difficulties opposed to such an operation, by the peculiar habits of the people, be considered as sufficiently accurate. It being certain, however, that the error does not lie in having overrated the inhabitants, we may safely venture to estimate the population of the island at twelve thousand, every person included; a larger population than has, perhaps, been known in any settlement, in so short a period, from its foundation. Prince of Wales's Island produces every thing which is common to the neighbouring countries, and many things which are only found at a great distance; among the former are pepper, beetle-nut, beetle-leaf, cocoa-nut, coffee, sugar, cotton, paddy, ginger, yams, sweet-potatoes; a great variety of vegetables; and many different sorts of fruits; as the mangoteen, rambosteen, pine-apple, guava, orange, citron, pomegranate, &c. &c. The exotics are cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, pimento, kyapootee, colalava, and a number of other plants, from the Molaccas and Eastern Isles, which have been introduced within these few years, and thrive in the most luxuriant manner. The gamootee, of which the black coir rope is made, is a native of the island. By an account of the cultivation of of the island, taken in 1801, it ap- view in forming the settlement, pears there were Pepper vines under three Beetle-nut trees... 583,230 There are tin mines in the Island; but they have never been worked, as this article can always be procured cheaper from the different countries in the vicinity of the Island, than it could be obtained were the mines worked at the expense and risk of government. A small quantity of the ore has been analized, and found to be of an excellent quality. appears to have been the acquiring a port in the straits of Malacca, for commercial purposes; and there certainly is not in any part of India, a place so well adapted to this end as Prince of Wales's Island; at the same time it enjoys great 1,316,579 advantages as a naval port. Hitherto the productions of the island have 342,110 constituted but a small portion of 32,306 the extensive commerce which flourished here for many years; but although this portion has, as yet, been inconsiderable, there is the most satisfactory and pleasing evidence that it is daily increasing. The numerous, extensive, and highly-cultivated plantations of pepper, and beetle nut, which are every where rising into view, will, in a short time, afford large cargoes of those articles, without the trouble and expense of impertation. It is computed, that there will be upwards of fifteen thonsand pieuls of pepper produced en the island this year (1804;) and that in the course of three or four years more, the plantations will yield more than twenty thousand pieuls. Coffee also promises to become a valuable commodity: this berry has been imported from different quarters, and they all thrive very well, and produce fineflavoured coffee. The sugar cane grows with uncommon luxuriance; but as the price of labour is very high, the expense attending the making of sugar will prevent a very extensiv cultivation of the cane. The spice plantations, in which are some thousands of clove and nutmeg trees, are so flourishing, that the island may reasonably hopeo a few years, to be able to furm na valuable cargo of cloves, nutm and mace; with their essen. The author formed a treaty with the King of Quedah, in June, 1800, for ceding to the hon. the East India company in perpetuity a tract of land, on the opposite coast to George Town, extending about eighteen miles along the coast by three in breadth; also the cession of the island in perpetuity; and the exclusion of all European powers as settlers in the Quedah dominions, at an annual payment of ten thousand Spanish dollars. Since the publication of this work, an efficient code of civil and criminal laws has been established in the island; which renders it unnecessary to follow the author, in his judicious remarks, on the serious evils arising from the want of such an establishment. We shall proceed to give the author's view of the commerce of the island. The principal, if not the only oils, oils, and also the so-much-esteemed the very important advantage of kyapootee oil.* However the a quick return of his capital. productions of the island may increase in various articles, the principal source of wealth must arise from its being considered as the best and greatest port of exchange in India. Ships and vessels come here from every quarter, and can exchange the commodities they bring, for those which are required as a return cargo. This affords the merchant As there is not a custom house on the island, it is not possible to form an accurate idea of the extent of the general imports and exports. In the year 1801-2, an import duty of two per cent. ad valorum, was laid on tin, pepper, and beetle nut; from the return given in by the renter of this duty, it appeared that the following quantities of these articles were imported, viz. From Bengal.---Opium, grain, iron, steel, marine stores; piece goods, which consist chiefly of hummums, gurrahs, bafties, cossas, tanjabs, mamoodies, chintzs, kurwabs, taffatest, and bandanas. Coast of Coromandel.-Salt, tobacco, Punjum cloths, koal-blue cloths, coir rope, and yarns, handkerchiefs, chintzs; and a small quantity of fine goods. Bombay and Malabar Coast.Cotton, salt; a few piece goods, red wood, sandal wood, shark fins, fish mote, putchuck, myrrh, Surat piece goods, oil, &c. W. Coast Summatra.-Pepper, benjamin, camphire, gold dust. Acheen and Pedier.-Gold dust, beetle-nut, white and red, cut and Sp. Ds. 13,076 chickney, pepper, rice, and Acheen cloths. Diamond Point.-Rattans, sago, brimstone, and gold dust. East Coast.-Tin, pepper, Java arrack, sugar, oil, rice, tobacco, &c. &c. &c. Junk Ceylon-Tin, bird's nests, beache de mer, sepun, and elephants' teeth. Iringano. Pepper, and gold worked cloths. Borneo-Gold dust, sago, and blackwood. Moluccas.---Spices. China.---Tea, sugar, lustrings, velvets, paper, umbrellas, china ware of all kinds; quicksilver, nankeens, tutenague, sweetmeats, pickles, and every article required by the Chinese inhabitants, raw silk, copper ware, china, camphire, china root, allum, &c. &c. EXPORTS. Sumatra E. and W. Coast.--All the various piece goods from Bengal, * A cure for the Rheumatism. |