gapore was the first place I visited; and to it, therefore, I
must devote the next few pages of these retrospective lucubrations.

Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles deserved a great deal of credit and praise
from the mercantile community of Britain, for having established this
emporium of trade. A more lovely or better situation could not have been
chosen; and its surprising prosperity has more than realized its
founder's expectations, sanguine as they were. Since 1826, I have
resided some considerable time in Singapore; have witnessed its progress
towards its present nourishing condition; and am sufficiently well
acquainted with its trade and its inhabitants to enable me to speak
confidently respecting them. The Island itself, though only seventy-six
miles from the Equator, enjoys a delightful climate, and is remarkable
for salubrity. Its proximity to the Line secures frequent refreshing
showers, and its foliage is in consequence always in the full bloom of
summer. During an acquaintance with it of eighteen years, I have never
known a drought of more than three weeks' duration. Its soil, with
little tillage, produces the nutmeg, the clove, coffee, the cocoa-nut,
the sugar-cane, the pepper-vine, gambia or terra japonica, and all the
fruits common to Malacca and Java. The East-India Company's regulations
regarding land checked, for a few years, the spirit of the
agriculturist; but, within the last ten years, a few spirited and
praiseworthy individuals have laid out considerable sums of money in
nutmeg, coffee, sugar, and cocoa-nut plantations. It is a somewhat
doubtful point, in my opinion, whether sugar or coffee plantations on
this island will ever pay; but, of the nutmeg and cocoa-nut groves, I
have the best opinion, and think their proprietors have a very fair
chance of ultimately being well paid for their outlay. Of the nutmeg
gardens, that of Dr. Oxley's is by far the finest on the island. This
gentleman has spared neither trouble nor expense in bringing his plants
forward, and has now five thousand of the very finest nutmeg-trees I
ever saw. Nothing can be finer than their beautiful position, tasteful
outlay, and luxuriant foliage. It is now eighteen months since I last
saw those trees: they were then just coming into bearing; and they are
now, I hope, paying their spirited proprietor for his monthly outlay at
all events, though it may be a few years yet before they return him
interest for his money, and adequate remuner