Chinese say they will. In the centre, the Queen of Heaven is seen decked
forth in robes of the most superb figured satin, richly embroidered
with gold; robes that the wealthiest dames of the proudest cities of
Europe might envy, but the like to which they never can possess. Her
Majesty was brought from China; and the owner of the junk in which she
came, would not receive a penny as freight for the room she occupied. On
her arrival in Singapore harbour, the whole Chinese population of the
Island turned out to see her land, and paraded her through the town,
with all the noise they could by any possibility extract from about a
thousand gongs. The building in which she has taken up her quarters,
cost 40,000 Spanish dollars, and does credit to the Chinese workmen of
Singapore. One day, shortly after the building of this temple, I asked
an intelligent and wealthy Chinese, how often he went to it. His answer,
in broken English, ran thus: "Sometime one moon, sometime two moon.
Suppose I want ask God for something, I go churchee. Suppose I no want
ask any thing, what for I go?" On my asking whether he never went to
return thanks for past favours, he seemed to think my question a very
silly one, and said, "No use."

The American Chapel is a remarkably neat little building. Besides these,
there is no other place of worship in Singapore worthy of notice.

Before quitting the subject of the inhabitants of this land of perpetual
summer, I must mention one class which the others would gladly get rid
of: I allude to the tigers of a large size which abound here, and which,
having cleared the jungles of wild-hog and jackalls, and nearly so of
deer, have lately commenced preying on man, to whom they have become a
most formidable and dreaded foe. Were I to set down the number of
unfortunate individuals who have, since 1839, been killed by these lords
of the forests, I should scarcely expect to be credited. Let any one
look over the newspapers of the Island for the last five or six years,
and they will tell him a tale of horror that will make his blood freeze.
Many of the more distant gambia-plantations have been deserted by their
proprietors in consequence of the ravages of these monsters. Government,
in the hope of remedying or mitigating the evil, offered a reward of one
hundred dollars for every tiger brought in alive or dead; but so dense
are the jungles in which they seek shelter, that their pursuers have
hitherto been far from succes