Although the countries concerned and the shipping companies of Europe appreciated this forward policy, one class of individuals resented this introduction of Western ideas into Oriental life. This was the population who lived by wrecking and piracy. They recognized the fact only too well, that, if brilliant beacons were to be permitted to be erected freely throughout these troublous seas, their despicable but remunerative calling would cease. Their solution of the problem assumed a characteristic Chinese and Malay form; they endeavoured to wreak their revenge upon the lights. Now and again there were sharp tussles between the engineering staffs and these high-water brigands, but firearms well handled by the white men invariably got the better of the argument. Pirates caught in the attempt to tamper with the lights received very short shrift. One engineer who had seen service in these waters related to me that in the early days the amount of lead expended in protecting a light from these marauders exceeded the quantity of this metal used in the tower itself. The Malacca Straits, from their exceedingly dangerous nature, constituted a happy hunting-ground for these gentlemen, and the lighting of these waters was effected as soon as possible. Among the innumerable menaces abounding, a shoal some sixteen miles west of the coastline was particularly harassing to mariners. It became known as One Fathom Bank, and the shallowest part was only about 18 feet below the surface at high-water. When these waters were guarded first, a lightship did duty; but the position is so open, and is so exposed to the full fury of the monsoon, that she frequently dragged her anchors, so that the warning became somewhat uncertain. Accordingly, it was decided to supersede the floating light by a permanent structure, and a lighthouse on stilts, similar to those familiar to American waters, was erected in 1874, and emitted a white flash once a minute. Although this ironwork structure was pounded mercilessly by the seas, it withstood all assaults completely, and was only superseded eventually owing to the ever-increasing exigencies of commerce, which demanded a more powerful and elevated light. The present tower was commenced in 1907. The engineers appreciated the fact that they were being called upon to carry out an undertaking in an especially trying position. The bank is well out to sea, and when the monsoon is in full blast waves 8 feet in height thunder upon the shoal, their ferocity varying according to the state of the tide, which rises and falls a matter of 14 feet. The difficulties attending the building of the Rothersand and Fourteen Foot Bank lighthouses under closely similar conditions were not forgotten, and the prospect of building a huge caisson on the mainland, and then towing it to the site to be sunk, was by no means attractive, even if the fullest avail were taken of the spells of calmest weather.