We now leave Ceylon, cross the eastern arm of the Indian Ocean, and turn southward through the Straits of Malacca. We shall find ourselves in a new world, among people very different from those that we have met in the earlier part of our voyage. The key to the understanding of the whole region is Singapore, a century ago an unimportant island, though even then a few far-seeing people realized its magnificent possibilities. The Dutch, at that time the chief commercial Power in the Malay Archipelago, were preparing to seize the island when they were anticipated by Sir Stamford Raffles, the East India Company’s representative at Bencoolen in Sumatra. He was the true founder of the modern city, and it does right to perpetuate his name in its streets and public buildings. We may consider Singapore, on its little island, to be the 1 capital of the whole region of British Malaya. Of what does British Malaya consist? In the first place, in addition to Singapore, there are the British Possessions on the western side of the Malay Peninsula. In the north we have the island of Penang, with Province Wellesley on the mainland opposite; further south, but grouped with Penang for administrative purposes, are the Dindings and the island of Pangkor; further south still is the territory of Malacca. [Illustration: MALAY PENINSULA: POLITICAL.] The total area of these small fragments is a little over 1,200 square miles, or less than that of the county of Kent; but outside them the whole of the southern part of the peninsula, a country about the size of England, is under British Protection. In the extreme south, opposite the island of Singapore, is the Malay state of Johor. In the middle is a group of four states, Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Pahang, which were federated in 1895 and are now known as the Federated Malay States. On the northern boundary are Kelantan, Trengganu, Kedah and the little state of Perlis; these by agreement with Siam, in 1909, were transferred from Siamese suzerainty to the protection of Britain. The Governor of Singapore is High Commissioner for the protected Malay States, and under him there are British residents, advisers or agents in all the States, supplemented in the Federated Malay States by a large staff of British officers.