Siah U Chin

“ Many of the Chinese labourers after having earned a little money, waste it upon opium or expend it in gambling. After a series of years they save nothing, and every day it becomes more and more difficult for them to return to their country. With empty purses and empty hands they may manage pretty well without gambling, but to go without opium would be to them certain death. When these opium smokers are reduced to straits from want of money they resort to schemes of plunder and robbery. ”

“ The amount of wages is determined by the quality of work whether it is good or inferior. The amount of wages of labourers in the jungle differs. Generally speaking, each labourer gets about 3 dollars per month, the wages of those who cut the Gambier leaves and of those who boil the gambier are somewhat more, but neither is their rate of wages fixed, they are paid more or less in proportion as the price of gambier rises or fails. ”

“ In the gambier and pepper plantations there are generally 9 or 10 men employed, 12 and 13 men are considered a full complement. I have never heard of any plantation having as many as 20 men upon it. Sometimes when the relations of Chinese labourers arrive from China, if they have no home to go to in Town they immediately proceed to their relations in the jungle, and take up their abode with them for a short time ”

“ They wear short jackets and short trowsers made mostly of coarse Nankeen, and unbleached stuff; they have a bag tied round their loins in which they keep their money and other little things; they go bare footed and wear bamboo hats on their heads to protect them from the sun; some wear feltcaps, which, though very thick, they say are not uncomfortably warm; this is their common dress, but on extraordinary occasions they wear shoes, white jackets and silk trowsers, and when they come to Town they have umbrellas to screen them from the sun, and in every particular resemble the Chinese in Town. ”

“ They resemble in a great measure the houses of the Malays, but there is this difference, that the houses of the Malays are mostly raised above the ground, whereas those of the Chinese are low on the surface; the walls of the houses are formed, some of the bark of trees, some of kadjang, and others of dried grass; some cover their roofs also with dried grass; those who are in pretty good circumstances use thin planks for their walls, but there are very few such. Except the temples, none of the Chinese houses are covered with tiles. ”

“ The plantations that have most men employed on them are those of persons who possess large capitals, and who are engaged in the cultivation of nutmegs, also the sugar plantations of the Americans.
It is very difficult to ascertain the proportion of healthy and sick persons in the interior; it is however supposed that the majority are healthy. ”

“ Those who have a little money add to these things, arrack, fowls, ducks, and pork; they also eat siri and smoke tobacco just as the Chinese in Town do. There are also a good number of opium smokers; when they have once acquired the habit they cannot break it off and they consume their money upon the drug. ”

“ Those who plant vegetables and siri do not venture to work at midday, for if they do so they get afflicted with dropsy. The effluvia of decomposed substances in the marsh Payo lands inhaled by the people causes this. ”

“ Philanthropists of the age does not this rend your hearts, and affect your eyes? Does it not lead you to lament their stupidity, and to contrive means by which you may rescue them?
The number of men that arrive in the Junks annually amounts to about 10,000. ”