The reception of the Duke of Cornwall at Singapore must
have been a remarkable sight. The population there, though often unruly, is attached to the British flag, without which their wealth would soon disappear, and the crowds which swarmed out to see the great King's heir included every race of the Far East, Chinamen, Malays, Siamese, Burmese, Filipinos, and representatives from the whole Archipelago, all in different costumes, and all kept in order by the Sikh garrison, and the certainty that a man-of-war could destroy the town in half-an-hour. The Chinese predominate, they are exceedingly rich, and they are, if anything, too completely self-governed; but the Malays are the most interesting alike from their character, their bearing, and their connection with the semi-independent States of Malaya. Four Rajahs from these States attended a Durbar on April 22nd, wonder- fully gorgeous figures who really retain among their own people almost despotic power. They have rare energy these Malays, and one would like to know a little more certainly than at present whence they came. They have the Mongol cheek-bone, but they are utterly unlike Mongols in character, and we incline to believe them sprung from a very early cross between some Mongol tribe which had wandered South and Arab settlers. They have the way of standing of the Arab, his furious courage, and his readiness, whenever pressed either by enemies or his own love of adventure, to take to the sea. They conquered Madagascar, and may have furnished much of Polynesia with its chiefs.
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