Lieutenant Chester, of the Bengal Native Infantry.

The convicts from Bencoolen were not sent over to the Straits of Malacca
in chains, but those received from India in the earliest times were
manacled with light leg fetters, in which they had to work for a
probationary period of three months. As, however, they were granted,
equally with the others, the privilege of going about the town to make
their purchases, it is said they ceased to consider their fetters a
mark of degradation, being so completely overwhelmed with the thought of
banishment from their country and kindred; and to many men of caste it
must be remembered that transportation alone was a severe punishment.

In the year 1826 there was a change of government in the settlements.
Hitherto the settlements of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore had not been
incorporated under one government. In this year it was decided by the
Supreme Government to do so, and the seat of government was fixed at
Penang, that being our oldest settlement in these seas. On this change
taking place, many more of the Indian convicts from Penang were sent
down to Singapore, the ship _Esperanza_ bringing down a further batch of
23 Bengal life convicts (males), and 26 Madras convicts (males), and 1
female; 31 Bombay (males), and 2 female convicts.

From the accounts given in the newspapers of that day, the convicts were
at this time treated with great indulgence if of proved good behaviour,
being permitted, after their work was over, to engage themselves as
servants to the residents, who, in the scarcity of labour at that time,
and the fitness of the convicts for such service, were content to give
them a very liberal wage. In the early days of penal colonies this has
not infrequently occurred, and some of these old convicts have been
known to amass considerable sums of money, and, indeed, to become
possessed of landed property in the town. The Government, however,
under Major Campbell, who succeeded Lieutenant Chester, took care to
exact from them a large amount of useful work in the filling up of
swampy ground near the town, and laying out plots of land for building
purposes. They also blasted the rocks at the mouth of the Singapore
river, on the site of which was afterwards constructed a fort, named
after the first Resident, Mr. Fullerton, and much of the rock was also
used in the construction of the sea and river walls adjoining. Their
services were also turned to account on any occasion