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John Crawfurd’s Singapore 9 9 SINGAPORE, correctly SINGAPURA, from the Sanscrit singa, lion, and pura city. This is the name of an island, which with the exception of a single village of poor and predatory Malay fishermen, and that only formed in 1811, was covered in a primeval forest down to the 6th day of February, 1819, and is now the fourth in rank of the European emporia of India, ranking after Batavia. De Barros gives a whimsical etymology of the name “Anciently,” says he, “the most celebrated city which existed in the land of Malacca, was called Cingapura, which in the language of the country signifies ‘false delay’ (falsa demora).” This derivation must have come through the Malays who, no doubt were then, as they now are, ignorant of the true meaning of the name, and indeed, even of the fact that it is derived from the sacred language of the Hindus. Singapore is the most northerly of the large islands of the almost countless group that in a great measure blocks up the eastern end of the strait which divides the Peninsula from Sumatra, leaving but narrow channels for navigation, and forming as it were, a region of straits. It is about thirty miles distant from the southern extremity of the Asiatic continent, and separated from the mainland by a strait generally about a mile broad, but in some parts little more than three furlongs. This is the Sâlat tambrau (strait of the tambrau fish), of the Malays and the “old Straits of Singapore” of European navigators. It was the old passage into the China Sea, but has long been abandoned for that by the southern side of Singapore. I went through it in a ship of 400 tons, and found the passage tedious but safe. Singapore in its greatest length 1 John Crawfurd, A Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands and Adjacent Countries (London: Bradbury and Evans, 1856), pp. 395–400. SOURCE 1 John Crawfurd’s Singapore: An Excerpt from A Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands and Adjacent Countries (1856)1 John Crawfurd 10 Nature Contained from east to west, is 25 miles long, and in its greatest breadth 14, having an area of 206 square geographical miles, which will make it 70 miles larger than the Isle of Wight. To the north, it is bounded by the territory of Jehore, the limit between being the continental shore of the narrow strait already mentioned. Everywhere else, the British settlement extend to 10 miles from the shore of the main land, and within this distance are contained no fewer than 75 islets of various sizes, embracing an area of 17 square miles, so that the superficies of the entire British settlement amounted to 223 square miles. Viewed from a distance, Singapore presents no marked elevations, but has the unvarying aspect of one continuous forest. The surface, however, is undulating; consisting, generally, of rounded hills of 80 to 120 feet high, with narrow valleys not above 15 or 20 feet above the sea level. A chain of rather higher hills runs through the island from east to west, making the water-shed in one direction to the north, and in the other to the south. The culminating point of the land is a hill, nearly in the centre of the island, called Bukit-timah, that is,“tin-hill”, and this rises to the height of 519 feet above the low water-mark spring tides. The geological formation of Singapore consists of the same rocks as the Peninsula generally, and is plutonic and sedimentary; the first consisting of granite, and the last, which embraces the greater portion of the island, of sand-stone, slate, and clay iron-ore. The only metallic ore that exists in abundance, and this is very rich, is that of iron. The island lies also in the formation most favourable for the existence of tin, namely, between the junction of granite and sand-stone, but no ore of it has as yet been discovered. The blue clays furnish an excellent material for bricks and tiles; and the decomposed feldspar of granite the finest kaolin which has yet been seen in India, but it has not been applied to the manufacture of porcelane. Some portion of the island, as that which is the site of the town, is of alluvial formation, chiefly sand with a very thin covering of vegetable mould. The climate of the island is well described by Mr. Thomson, in the...

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