+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------ Total Inhabitants|19715 | — |20978 | — | 1574 | — | 311 | — Deduct decrease| | | | | 311 | | | Increase in 1833 | | | | | 1263 | | | -----------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------ _Singapore Chronicle, Feb. 7, 1833._ Respecting the first settlement of Singapore: “In the first agreement,” says Crawford, “with the native chief, the arrangement amounted to little more than a permission for the formation of a British factory and establishment, along two miles of the northern shore, and inland to the extent of the point-blank range of a cannon-shot. There was, in reality, no territorial cession giving a legal right of legislation. The only law which could have existed was the Malay code. The native chief was considered to be the proprietor of the land, even within the bounds of the British factory; and he was to be entitled, in perpetuity, to one half of such duties of customs as might hereafter be levied at the port. In the progress of the settlement, these arrangements were of course found highly inconvenient and embarrassing, and were annulled by the treaty I am about to describe. “The island of Singapore belonged to the Malayan principality of Johore, a state which probably was never of much consequence, and for the last century had been of none at all. Sultan Mahomet, the last prince, died about the year 1810, leaving no legitimate issue. No prince of his family assumed the throne in immediate succession to him, and the country was dismembered among his principal officers. The Bind hara (treasurer or first minister) took to himself the territory of Pahang, on the eastern coast of the Malay peninsula, and is now commonly designated rajah of that place. The Tumangung, or chief judge, seized upon the corresponding territory, on the western side, with the adjacent islands. This is the person from whom we received the first grant of our factory. He informed me,” continues Crawford, “that he had settled in Singapore for the first time, in 1811, a few months before our expedition passed through the harbour, on its route to the capture of Java.