from the province.

The depth of the gold mines is from 70 to 200 feet, and the process of pounding the rock and washing the gold dust is simple and rude. The tin is worked from lowlands at the depth of a few feet, and some of the ores are so rich, that they contain about 80 per cent of the metal. It must be remembered, that the whole Malayan Peninsula, from Perak and Queda (Kedah) on the North to the islands of Carimon and Banca, which were once probably connected with the main land, in the South, is one rich deposit of tin.

The town is divided into two distinct quarters, the Northern or Chinese, and the Southern or Christian, separated from each other by a small stream spanned by an old bridge. The Chinese quarter is, as usual, densely crowded and populous, but there is not so much bustle in it as in the native parts of Singapore. The Chinese here are all of that class who are called 'Babas.' Their forefathers settled here some centuries ago, took Malay wives, and the progeny that resulted intermarried only among nemselves. They are generally men of some substance, and some of them are the richest Chinese merchants as well as landholders of Singapore. Most of them after acquiring a competency there, while yet young, retire to Malacca to enjoy the sweets of repose and doze away the remainder of their days. Chinese morality stands a degree higher at Malacca than at Singapore; and this may be owing to the presence of the large Portuguese Christian population, between whom and the Chinese there are many matrimonial links.

The Christian quarter on the South is built facing the harbour, with neat, substantial dwellings surrounded by gardens. Here the one or two officials and the few Dutch families reside. These last are generally persons who have inherited a competency, and pass their lives in cheerful and contented inactivity, visiting each other often, and keeping an open and hospitable house for travellers and visitors. The young ladies at Singapore do not meet the demands of the place; but at Malacca the demand is less than the supply, and the matrimonial market is overstocked. Behind the Dutch quarter, in humbler residences and with poorer means, live the Portuguese, who muster here in considerable numbers and have a decent Cathedral of their own, on which they look with no little pride. Malacca is the head quarters of the Portuguese priesthood in the Straits. Perhaps we should explain here, that when we speak of Dutch and Portuguese, we refer to the descendants of those who settled at Malacca under the Portuguese and Dutch rules.

The population of the whole province is about 80,000: that of

G

the town being a third of the above number. Of the town population not many are Malays they are chiefly to be found in the country; but there are about 12,000 Chinese, 5,000 Klings 3,000 Christians (Dutch and Portuguese,) 1,000 Bengalis (chiefly convicts and their descendants,) and about 1,000 of the various races of the Archipelago and Arabs.

The Dutch and European residents enjoy the ministration of of an uncovenanted assistant chaplain who is also the Secretary of the Free School of the Station, where about 300 pupils, chiefly Chinese lads receive instruction in the same miserable amount of reading, writing, and ciphering as is bestowed in the Government Schools of Pinang and Singapore. The Portuguese have a well attended school of their own, in which reading at least is taught more intelligently than in any of the three Government Schools in the Straits. There is a Romanist Mission to the wild tribes in the interior of the Peninsula, which is stated to have been a success. But there are no efforts made by Mission

aries in the town. When Dr. Morrison of the London Missionary Society first came out to the East, he chose Malacca for his station, built and succeeded in endowing an Anglo-Chinese College, and got out a heavy wooden press. But after a time the Missionaries were removed to China, the College was sold and broken up, and the wooden press is all the memorial left of the Mission.

We have incidentally noticed St. Paul's Hill in a previous page. It received its name from the Portuguese, and is about 150 feet high, covered with a close, green grass called at Malacca St. Paul's grass. It is crowned with a gray, massive building in ruins, which was once a convent. Just below it, in front, are the residences of the Dutch and the few officials. On its South is the small Hospital, and the ruins of a massive gate, the only remnant of the strong fort with which the Dutch surrounded the hill, and which was blown up to the very foundations by the British. On a slope to the East is the Cemetery, which contains but few graves, and further off the Convict Lines and Military Barracks. On the North-East slope is a beautiful little Government garden in which stands the solitary, but great nutmeg tree of Malacca. On the North is the Free School, the old Dutch Church, a small, ugly building now used for the services of the English Communion, and the thoroughly Dutch Stadt Haus looking neat, and substantial. This last accommodates all the Government offices, and still has much space to spare. The old state furniture of the Dutch still remains, and may be examined by the curious. The Strand

in front of the residences of the Dutch is lovely and picturesque beyond description, especially on a clear moonlight night, Near the suburbs, towards the South-East, on a chain of hills from 200 to 300 feet high which separates the paddy fields from the town, lies the Chinese Cemetery, a vast city of the dead. One may walk for a mile and more on these treeless hills, whitened with sepulchres, all silent and still as death. There are large Chinese Cemeteries both in Pinang and Singapore, but they are not so extensive, as this of Malacca. The graves are always kept clean and in good repair, and, once a year, offerings to the dead are made at them.

We must now close this account of Malacca with a few lines about the trade of the place. Some tin, a little gold dust, a little gutta percha, rattans, fruits, and poultry, are exported to Singapore; and opium, specie and piecegoods are brought back in return. From the surrounding petty states and from Sumatra quantities of pepper, camphor, tin, and gold-dust, are imported to be sent on to Singapore; and the return is made generally in rice grown in the province and piecegoods and opium brought from Singapore. The harbour is quite free from native craft, the few belonging to the town keeping inside the river, and the few schooners or brigs usually lie far off in the distance. The trade of Malacca has been ruined by Singapore and Pinang, and amounts now to a little over a million sterling.

About four hundred miles to the North of Malacca, at the head of the Straits, and separated from the mainland by a channel 2 miles broad, which forms the harbour, is the Island of Pinang. As seen from a distance out in the Straits, here nearly 200 miles wide, it appears very rugged and mountainous. The highest peak, not far West of the town, is about 2,700 feet high, Government Hill adjoining it is about 2,500 feet, and the other hills from 1,000 to 2,000 feet high. They run in chains in every part of the Island save the East. It is at the northern extremity of this eastern plain that George Town or Pinang as it is called by Europeans, or Tanjong (Cape) by the Malays, is situated.

The Island is fourteen miles long by eight broad; it was obtained from the neighbouring Malay Sultan of Queda through the influence of a Captain Light, who is said to have married his daughter, and who was appointed the first Governor in 1786, for a yearly payment of 6,000 dollars. The Island then was wild and uncultivated, with only some 20 or 30 inhabitants. It was not till long after, that, for the protection of the harbour, the opposite coast some 30 miles long by 15 broad, was taken from the same Prince for another annual payment of 4,000 dollars.

The harbour may be entered from both the North and South, the channel towards the South being marked off with floating buoys and lights. The entrance by this Southern Channelshows picturesque views only on the Island side, where wild and precipitous hills rise from the edge of the sea; but it is tiresome when in a sailing vessel with a contrary wind, as the whole length of the Island must be passed before the harbour is reached, and for a considerable distance the masts of the vessels in port are dimly seen, tantalizing the expectant traveller. Of course in a steam vessel the distance is quickly passed. But the entrance by the Northern Channel, which being wider allows a free berth for tacks in contrary winds, is most pretty. It is bounded by views of lofty chains of mountains on the Peninsula on the left, and the Great Hill on the right. Further on the plain becomes visible, and the shore is seen dotted with substantial, white houses surrounded with gardens; and scarcely are these past when the point on which the small, low fort is situated is turned, and the vessel is in the crowded harbour and at anchor. Thirty or forty square rigged vessels are seen lying at sufficient distances from each other, and further to the South some hundreds of junks and prahus line the shore. Neither the harbour nor the town wears the noisy and crowded aspect of Singapore. Along the shore, running far off to the South, warehouses and Chinese buildings crowd each other. A stone jetty runs out into the harbour, and this is the usual landing place. On landing, towards the right is the fort and the esplanade, and towards the left ugly, puny buildings painted a hideous yellow. Pinang has no public strand, and so the usual place of concourse in the evening is the esplanade or the Eastern face of the fort.

If the traveller drive on due West, he soon leaves the town, and passes between rows of country houses surrounded by the gardens that were visible from the Northern entrance to the harbour, and after some four miles, when the country houses cease and give place to cultivation, he arrives at the base of the 'Highlands.' Here, after passing through a wild nutmeg plantation, he comes upon the water fall, one of the lions of the Island. It is a very small one and little worth the trouble of seeing. It is from here that the town is supplied with pure water through pipes. Or if he intends to go up the Government Hill, he leaves his carriage near the entrance of the nutmeg plantation, passes through a defile, mounts a strong pony and begins to ascend. After some two or three hours invigorating exercise along a road whence very pretty views are sometimes obtainable, and whose sides are often densely wooded and peopled by tribes

of chattering monkies, we gain the summit Here, at a height of 2,500 feet above the level of the sea, there is a Government House, a signal station, to give notice of vessels making for the harbour, a beautiful Government garden, and numerous pretty bungalows scattered at intervals. On a clear day the sea is visible to a distance of 50 miles to the West, the little town is seen lying just at the foot of the Hill, the channel separating the Island from the mainland shrinks into a small stream, and on the opposite coast the bold mountains of Queda tower up in gigantic masses, forming a back ground to Province Wellesley with its plantations; while towards the South there is an endless succession of wooded or cultivated hill and dale. The climate up here is cold enough to require the use of a pair of blankets at night, and is most pleasant throughout the day.

But if from the jetty the traveller strikes due South, he passes along what was once the beach, and is now a street lined for two miles with compact masses of houses and crowded with all the traffic of Pinang.

The inhabitants may be divided as at Singapore into Chinese, Klings, Europeans, Portuguese, and Malays. There are, besides, a few Burmese living on the road to the waterfall. The Klings and Chinese are pretty well provided with wives, but the Chinese, whether married or unmarried, whether in or out of China, are always steeped in gross vice. There are numerous Joss houses and Chinese guild-halls all over the town. The English Church is an ugly, yellow building, situated but a short distance from the jetty. The Romanist and Scotch Churches adjoin. There is another Roman Catholic Church for the Portuguese and for Chinese converts. Not far from this last stands the third of the lions of Pinang, the other two being the waterfall and Government Hill. We refer to the Pinang Roman Catholic College, a range of buildings crowded with Burmese, Siamese, and Chinese youths who are being here prepared to carry the creed of Rome throughout the length and breadth of South Eastern Asia; it can boast of a decent Museum. This last is well worth a visit. The arrangements made in this College for physical self-denial as well as recreation are admirable.

There is also a Mission to the Chinese carried on by the Revd. Mr. Chapman, a gentleman unconnected with any Society, but depending upon the support of the Christian public of the Island. Much good has been done by it; for besides some converts it has two schools for boys and girls, generally orphans, there are weekly lectures in the town, besides Sunday services, and medicine is freely given away to the poor. Besides the