PRISONERS THEIR OWN WARDERS
PRISONERS THEIR OWN
WARDERS
A RECORD OF THE CONVICT PRISON AT SINGAPORE
IN THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS ESTABLISHED 1825,
DISCONTINUED 1873, TOGETHER WITH A
CURSORY HISTORY OF THE CONVICT
ESTABLISHMENTS AT BENCOOLEN,
PENANG AND MALACCA FROM
THE YEAR 1797
BY MAJOR J. R A. McNAIR
Late Royal Artillery, C.M.G., A.M.I.C.E., F.L.S., and F.R.G.S
Late Colonial Engineer and Surveyor General and Comptroller of Indian Convicts
Straits Settlements from 1857 to 1877 Author of "Perak
and the Malays" (Sarong and Kris)
Assisted by W. D. BAYLISS
Mem. Soc. Engineers Lond., Late Superintendent of Works and
Surveys and Superintendent of Convicts, Singapore
WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
"A willing bondman."
—Shakespeare
(Julius Caesar, Act I., Sc. 3)
WESTMINSTER
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO
2 WHITEHALL GARDENS
1899
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Butler & Tanner,
The Selwood Printing Works,
Frome, and London.
Preface
Some explanation appears to be due from us for writing this accountof the Singapore Convict Jail so long after the date of its finalabolition.
The truth is, that for several years it has been our opinion thatit ought to be written by some one, and the same suggestion hadoften been made to one of us by the late Doctor Mouat, InspectorGeneral of Jails, Bengal, and others who were well acquainted withits administration.
An opportunity lately occurred to bring us into communication onthe subject, and when we came to compare the voluminous notes thateach of us had collected during the time that the jail was in fullvigour, we arrived at the conclusion that there was abundantmaterial for a work upon it. It also appeared to us that there weresome exceptional features in the training and discipline of thesenative convicts, that might even at this day prove of service toother Superintendents of native jails in different parts of Indiaand the Colonies; while, at the same time, such a work would not be[vi]devoid of some interest to those who make a study of thepunishment and reformation of the criminal class of all countries,a subject in regard to which, in spite of the great progress wehave made, the last word has certainly not yet been said.
Th