Ditto £1272. Interest on debts, £844. + Ditto £253. The accounts of Sincapore and Malacca are included in these years; but for nine months only in the year 1826-27, and for the whole year in 1827-28. The sale of opium is a monopoly in the hands of government, who derive a revenue from it of about 40,000 Spanish dollars a year; land, licences, and customs, are the remaining chief sources of revenue. The government of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore, is subordinate to the presidency of Bengal, and the civil establishment recently fixed as follows:Chief resident at Singapore, rupees 36,000; first assistant, 24,000; second ditto, 7,200; deputy re. sident at Malacca, 24,000; assistant, 7,200; deputy resident, Prince of Wales's Island, 30,000; assistant, 7,200; assistant, Province Wellesley (exclusively of military pay), 3,600; one surgeon, 9,600, and three assistant surgeons at 4,800, 14,400, 24,000; two chaplains at 8,500 each, and one missionary 2,500, 20,000; office establishment, 12,000. Total sicca rupees 1,95,200. As a commercial and maritime station Penang has many advantages; it serves as an entrepôt for the various produce of China, the eastern islands and straits, the native merchants from which take back in return British and India goods. It was at one time contemplated to form an extensive arsenal and ship-building depôt at Penang, and indeed several fine ships were built there, but the object was ultimately abandoned. At present Penang serves as a rendezvous for our naval squadron in the Indian seas, for which its position, healthiness, and abundance of provisions admirably qualify it; during the Burmese war Penang was found a most valuable station, as it would again be in the event of renewed hostilities. When, perhaps, the British dominion in Hindostan shall have terminated, or if a violent convulsion should occur to drive us temporarily from its territory, (circumstances which are not beyond the range of possibilities,) the possession of such insular stations as Penang, Ceylon, &c. will be found of incalculable worth. Their value now even is vast, and it may be expected will be appreciated more and more every day, as a spirit of enterprize leads our fellow subjects to a more intimate connexion with the fertile regions of the eastern hemisphere. LOCALITY, AREA, HISTORY-PHYSICAL ASPECT, CLIMATENATURAL PRODUCTS, &c. -POPULATION-GOVERNMENTEDUCATION-COMMERCE, &c. NEAR the southern extremity of the long Malayan peninsula in latitude 2° 14′ north longitude, 102° 12' east, is situated the British settlement of Malacca, extending about forty miles along shore by thirty inland, and containing an area of 800 square miles : bounded on the north by Salengore at Cape Rochado, on the south Johore, at the river Muar, on the east, by the Rumbo country, and on the west, by the straits of Malacca. PHYSICAL ASPECT.-The sea coast is rocky and barren, with detached islets of cavernous rocks, which the Chinese used as places of sepulture. The interior is mountainous (being a continuation of the Alpine chain, which runs from the Brahmaputra river in Assam to the extremity of the peninsula); with several picturesque valleys, the highest mountain (named by the natives Lealdang, by the Portuguese Mount Ophir) has an elevation of 4000 feet above the sea. Colonel Farquhar was nearly six hours ascending to the highest part of Mount Ophir, the table surface on the top of which does not exceed 1 The length of the Peninsula is 775 miles, with an average breadth of 125 miles. forty yards square; the whole mountain appears to be a solid block of granite, here and there thinly covered with decayed vegetable soil. Stunted firs are found near the summit, and the vegetation of the mountain was quite different from that met with on the plains and valleys. The principal rivers are the Muar and Lingtuah, and the small streams and rivulets from the mountains are very numerous. The extreme point of the peninsula is a cluster of small islands; the roadstead is safe, and in the south-west monsoon vessels not drawing more than sixteen feet of water are secure in a harbour under the lee of the fort. Colonel Farquhar (who has made Malacca his study) observes that violent tempests never occur at its excellent anchoring ground, that the Sumatra squalls, which are common to the straits, seldom last above an hour or two, and that for upwards of twentyfive years while the English had possession of the place no ship had been lost. HISTORY.-The Malayan peninsula, although the great majority of the inhabitants are Malays (whence it derives its name), is not the original country of that active, restless, courageous, vindictive, and ferocious people. The present possessors (or Malayan princes and their subjects) emigrated in the thirteenth century, from Palembang in Sumatra (the original country of the Malays) about A. D. 1252, and founded the city of Malacca. As they extended their colonization, the aborigines of the country, who are oriental negroes with woolly hair, jet black skin (the Malays are copper coloured), thick lips, and flat nose, like the THE MALAYS.-CLIMATE. 139 African, and of diminutive stature, were driven inland to the mountains, where some of their unfortunate posterity still exist. The Malayan chiefs soon became involved in hostilities with their neighbours, partly, perhaps, because their sultan, Mohammed Shah, adopted the Mahommedan religion from the Arabs, then the great traders in the East. Although the Malacca people were able to resist the attacks of the Siamese on their chief city, they were compelled to yield to the conquering Portuguese, who, in 1511, compelled Sultan Mohammed Shah, the twelfth of his line, and the seventh of the city of Malacca, to fly, after an obstinate resistance, to the extremity of the peninsula, where he founded the principality of Johore, which still exists. The Portuguese held Malacca until 1640, though with great difficulty, against the repeated assaults of the Sultans of Acheen, when it was assailed by the Dutch, who captured it after six months' siege. In 1795 it was seized by the British, but restored to the Dutch at the peace of Amiens in 1801. On the breaking out of the European war in 1807, it was again taken by the English, but again restored at the peace of 1815; however, in 1825, it was received by England, together with the Fort of Chinsurah on the river Hooghly, 20 miles from Calcutta, in exchange for the British settlements on the island of Sumatra. CLIMATE.-The climate is reckoned one of the healthiest in India, the temperature being uniform, the thermometer ranging from 72 to 85 the whole year round. The mornings and evenings are cool and refreshing, and the sultry nights of Hindostan |