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Singapore 1 Feby

bread I ever tasted. I am sure I never will taste any thing better or rather better suited to my taste at this particular time for haveing [sic] been without almost every thing for 6 months, a piece of condemned bread would no doubt have been good. On the 1st of February Made the isle of Singapore dist about 25 miles yet with the light airs head tides &c we did not get up until the [?] Singapore is an English possession and is a beautiful island and the healthiest place in the East Indies As soon as the ship got in I received permission to go on shore to live which I of course accepted and put up at the London Hotel. The City of Singapore is divided into two parts by a river or rather into three parts by the river and canal. one part is the English City which contains about 200 whites the other two parts are China town The English part of the town is extremely beautiful it is good for a sick man to look at I think it is the prettiest town I ever saw. The streets are wide and regular and well graded and kept remarkably clean there is hardly a finer in the place but all beautiful. Cane hedges. which are trimed [sic] as nice and as even as a [?dany's?] hair The yards are covered with grass and the gardens full of beautiful flowers. pine apples &c. Many [?may?] All the english have large quantities of pidgeons which gives the houses a real home like look Near the English ladies I am almost afraid to say anything about them for fear I should slander them but they are the prettiest best and kindest folks I ever saw save a few at home. The Chinese town is nothing but a collection of shops in which the Chinese trade and live. they are a dirty industrious people and it is easy to recognise a chinese as far as you can see him by their quick walk and business like manner in the China town is the Chinese temple which is a well built and clean temple have an immense quantity of carving and gilt work about it and besides costly silk and velvit curtains figures and statues cut out of the solid stone. each pillar of the temple is either a dragon or a serpant supporting the roof birds fish beast and serpants are carved over all the walls The walls are also full of chinese inscriptions which I could not (of course) understand but was told that they were Chinese proverbs. it is certainly the finest temple I ever saw. No church in the United States can come near it as to splendour. The Bazar or Market for every thing is Mostly of Chinese and all the black smiths carpenters, Masons &c are chinese. they are all ways at work and seem to be the most industrious people in the East. The Chinese are also the principal Merchants of the place. Many of them have made immense fortunes Wompoa a rich chinese is one of the principal merchants in the place and deals largely in opium, in various parts of the city can be seen Opium Shops Which are licensed by the English to them the Chinese repair and get as drunk as opium will make them but this is not much worse if any than geting [sic] drunk on brandy or whiskey. which Christains do. and they do not. nearly all the goods are