some little
time, Sir Stamford Raffles finally fixed upon the island of Singapore
for an entrepot for trade, and the wisdom and sagacity displayed by him
in this selection has been abundantly proved.

Sir Stamford Raffles concluded the treaty with the native chiefs for the
cession of the island to Great Britain, and the British flag was planted
on the island on the same day that the treaty was signed, viz., the 19th
February, 1819, but it has since been found to have been actually signed
on the 6th of that month.

Our new possession, some 600 miles from Batavia, then contained in round
numbers about 120 Malays and 30 Chinese. Some of these lived wholly in
their boats at the mouth of the river, and the remainder in huts at
Teloh Blangah, on the south side of the island. In the course of a year
the population had risen to 5,000, and in little more than five years to
19,000 or 20,000 of all nations actively engaged in commerce, "offering
to each and all a handsome livelihood and abundant profit." When the
census was taken in 1881 the population had risen to 139,208, and in
1891 there was an increase of 45,346, making a total of 184,554,
representing nearly every nationality and tribe in the Indian
Archipelago, China, and India, and about 1,500 Europeans.

In the year 1822, the first settlers to dwell on the island were traders
in the Archipelago, and they lived in raft houses, so called, or more
probably in huts, erected on poles in the Malay style, and these were
located on the site of the present "Commercial Square," which was then
little more than a mud flat covered by the sea at high water. One of the
first steps taken by the Government was to fill up this low-lying sea
marsh, which was executed by free labour, but was subsequently largely
assisted by some local prisoners who were confined in a temporary jail
near by, on the site where the present Court-house now stands. The first
magistrates to be appointed in the settlement, and who tried and
sentenced these prisoners, were men whose names will ever be preserved
unforgotten by the colony, and we make no excuse in giving them in full
as obtained from _The Anecdotal History_, viz., Messrs. A. L. Johnstone,
D. A. Maxwell, D. F. Napier, A. F. Morgan, John Purvis, Alexander
Guthrie, E. Mackenzie, W. Montgomery, Charles Scott, John Morgan, C. R.
Read, and Andrew Hay. Two magistrates sat in court with the Resident
Councillor, to decide cases both civil and criminal, and