tes frequently engaged in wars with each
other, but there were constant internal insurrections and
struggles, the various petty chiefs frequently endeavouring to set
up as independent powers. At the present time the tumangong, or
chief justice, had obtained possession of the island of Singapore,
and the adjacent district of the mainland; while other chiefs had
also thrown off their allegiance to the Rajah of Johore, who
himself had usurped the power from the former reigning family.

"If," he said, "you want only to obtain a place for trade, the
tumangong is no doubt the person from whom you must obtain it; but
if you wanted the whole island, you would have to treat not only
with him but with the rajah as, in case the latter should defeat
and overthrow the tumangong, he certainly would not recognize the
cession of the island to you."

"Is there a good port?"

"No; but it is not needed. They do not have hurricanes, here, as
they do in the Bay of Bengal and in the China Seas, and indeed
among the islands; so vessels can anchor off the coast, in safety,
at all times of the year."

"What is the island like?"

"It is covered with forest and jungle," the Malay replied. "There
are but few inhabitants, a hundred and fifty or so. Most of these
are my people, but there are a few Chinese and Bugis. The Malays
are not cultivators. They live by piracy, attacking small native
vessels passing through the narrow passages between Singapore and
the mainland. The Chinese cultivate patches of land."

"Is it fertile?"

"Very. Rain falls there more than half the days in the year. If the
Chinese had it, they would make a garden of it. It is better, even,
than the land on that part of Sumatra where they produce spices and
grains of all sorts. The Malay Peninsula would be very wealthy,
were it not split up into several kingdoms, that are always at war
with each other.

"Singapore was a great place, once. Seven hundred years ago it was
the capital of the whole Malay kingdom; but it was taken, a hundred
years afterwards, by the King of Java, and Malacca then became the
Malay capital."

"The affair does not seem very promising," Harry said, after
repeating to Fairclough what he had heard from the Malay. "From my
experience of the Indian princes, there is very little trust to be
placed in any agreement made with them. They keep it just as long
as it suits them, and then break it; without the slightest sense of
having done anything dish