About eight A.M. we arrived at the extensive Gambir and pepper plantations, garden, orangery, and neat habitation of a Chinese, who informed us that he had been ten years upon the island. We breakfasted at this place, a servant having been previously sent on with provisions; but we always found the Chinese planters eager to provide us with any provisions they had. He supplied our table, however, with some excellent oranges from his garden: he has upwards of two hundred orange trees, (which had been originally brought from China,) of large size and in full bearing, which brought him in a good annual income, from the sale of the fruit in the Singapore market. He said he had expended fifteen thousand dollars upon the cultivation and improvement of his farm. Many Chinese are settled in the interior of this island, upon land for which no quit-rent having been paid, they render themselves liable to lose the ground they have cleared and cultivated, unless they pay the heavy sum demanded by the government as quit-rent. However, I am not aware of any such oppressive measures having yet been resorted to by the government, and hope the tax on the industry and general cultivation of the land will be removed altogether; and by bestowing small grants upon the settlers, render the island a garden instead of a jungle—productive, instead of barren. Although I devoted much attention to the subject of quit-rents, and collected much information on the question, I do not consider that I can do better than insert the following intelligent remarks, which have been published in the Singapore Chronicles of January 24th, and February 7th, 1833. The subject is one immediately connected with the welfare of the island; and should the tax be rescinded, which would encourage both emigration and cultivation, we may expect to see the dense forest give place to houses and plantations, smiling with the animation such scenery would occasion, encouraging industry, and adding to the wealth of the settlement. “We have already noticed, on one or two previous occasions, the great prohibitions which exist to the cultivation and consequent improvement of this island, in the excessive quit-rents which are required by government on all grants of land, whether within the limits of the town, or beyond it. The terms of this impost we have already noticed, but we think the subject will not suffer by our mentioning them again.