system pursued
there, he found it to be of the most primitive type. For the linear
measurements the surveyor had for a chain, rattans jointed together, and
this, with a ten-foot rod and a common compass, formed their whole
equipment. When he tested however the measurements of the fields and the
town lots, he was surprised to find to what approach to accuracy they
had arrived with their rude implements. Indian convicts were also there
employed as land measurers and assistants.

Upon his return to Singapore, Mr. Thompson designed a European hospital,
and adjoining it a pauper hospital, erected mostly at the cost of a
benevolent Chinese gentleman of the name of Tan-Tock-Seng. They were
built on a plateau of Pearls Hill facing the town. Some years later
these buildings were required for military purposes, and were adapted
for the purposes of a Commissariat and Ordnance Department respectively.
A new building, in which was incorporated a general hospital, was
subsequently erected facing the Bukit Timah Road, and the Tan-Tock-Seng
hospital for paupers was built further outside the town on the Serangoon
Road. In the erection of these buildings convict labour was very largely
utilised, and in the front elevation of Tan-Tock-Seng's hospital they
had some rather difficult mouldings to execute.

In the year 1844, owing to the amount of building that was then going on
in the town, there was a great dearth of bricks; so much so, that the
Chinese brick-kilns could not supply the immense demand, and the price
per laksa of 10,000 rose more than fifty per cent. This led to the
determination on the part of the Government to make their own bricks,
and an order was issued to the Public Works Department to arrange for
their manufacture by the convicts. This was subsequently done; and a
suitable site having been found upon the Serangoon Road, a large
establishment was started, an account of which will be given in detail
when we come to deal with the industrial occupations of the Indian
convicts. The first Government brick-field, however, was started at
Rochore, under Captain Faber, but was given up after only a short trial.
He employed free labour.

Chapter VI

SINGAPORE (_Continued_)

During the year 1845 the Bukit Timah Road was opened up by convict
labour between Bukit Timah and Kranji, so that the produce hitherto
carried by water to Singapore from the neighbouring country of Johore
could now be brought into town by road, w