eland and Scotland, far exceed them. Let any
unprejudiced European walk through the native towns of Java, Singapore,
or China, and see if he can find a single drunken native. What he will
meet with are, numbers of drunken English, Scotch, and Irish seamen,
literally rolling in the gutters, intoxicated, not from opium, but from
rum and other spirits sent all the way from England for the purpose of
enabling her worthy sons to exhibit themselves to Chinese and other
nations in this disgraceful light. That spirit-drinking at home is no
excuse for opium-smoking abroad, I admit; but I would recommend the
well-intentioned persons who have of late been raising such an outcry on
the subject of opium, to begin at home, and attempt to reform their own
countrymen: they may then come to China with a clear conscience, and
preach reform to the poor opium-smoker.

Among other improvements in Java, its rulers have lately turned their
attention to the cultivation of tea, and with considerable success so
far as regards the quality, I have no means of ascertaining the quantity
of tea at present produced yearly; but have no doubt it will, before
long, become an important article of export from the Island.

Before quitting Java, I must say a word about the far-famed upas-tree.
Such a tree certainly exists on the island; but the tales that are told
of its poisoning the air for hundreds of yards round, so that birds dare
not approach it, that vegetation is destroyed beneath its branches, and
that man cannot come near it with impunity, are perfectly ridiculous. To
prove their absurdity, a friend of mine climbed up a upas-tree, and
passed two hours in its branches, where he took his lunch and smoked a
cigar. The tree, however, does contain poison, and the natives extract
the sap, with which they rub their spear and _kriss_ blades: wounds
inflicted with blades thus anointed, are mortal. Such I believe to be
the origin of the many fabulous stories that have passed from hand to
hand, and from generation to generation, about the upas-tree of Java.

CHAPTER III.

SINGAPORE.

ADVANTAGEOUS POSITION OF SINGAPORE--CULTIVATION
OF THE NUTMEG AND COCOA-NUT--ROADS AND SCENERY--
MOTLEY POPULATION--EUROPEAN RESIDENTS--CHINESE
EMIGRANTS--KLINGS--SAMPAN-MEN--PLACES OF
WORSHIP--TIGERS.

In the month of May 1824, I returned from my trip to the eastward, and
was kept tightly at work in Batavia, till fate sent me wandering in July
1826. Sin