The town has something of a Chinese aspect, from the number of Chinamen who are employed in every capacity; and the fruits and vegetables are principally cultivated and brought to market by people of that nation. In Java, Penang, and elsewhere, they are also to be met with in great numbers; which is quite sufficient to prove (were proof wanting) how much they are naturally disposed to become a colonizing people. There is hardly any part of the world to which a Chinaman would refuse to go, if led and managed by some of his own countrymen. But, wherever they go, they carry the vice of _opium-smoking_ with them, and it is needless to say that it thrives at Singapore to its fullest extent, and that a large revenue is annually derived from the monopoly of the sale of the drug. The climate of Singapore is healthy, although the soil is wet, owing to the constant rains; and the heat is, perhaps, never excessive, although the place is situated only about seventy miles from the equator. It might be expected that the recent opening of the new Chinese ports, from some of which large trading junks have annually come down to seek their cargoes at Singapore, would prove injurious to the future trade of the latter, since it would no longer be necessary for the Chinese to go abroad to seek for that which will now be brought to them at their own doors. This apprehension, however, seems to be little entertained on the spot, because there can be little doubt, that whatever tends to augment the general foreign trade with China must benefit Singapore, which lies on the highroad to it, to a greater or less extent. Singapore has nothing to fear as regards its future commercial prosperity, which is likely rather to increase than to diminish, in consequence of the general increase of trade with China and the neighbouring islands.