Travellers' Tales of Old Singapore

The book is a compilation of writings of visitors to Singapore, spanning from the time of founding, around 1819, to the British surrender in 1942.

Of more interest were the accounts of early Singapore, where the Temenggong was suspected of being a pirate, to stories of the Orang Laut, who were highly skilled in both swimming and spear fishing.

Early Singapore did indeed seem to be ruled by pirates, with the beaches laden with skulls. But the island, with its numerous smaller offshore islands, seems to have been very picturesque, with some tourists making visits of the area to swim and play in pools of clear water and wonderful beaches. One wonders that if these skills and nature's wonders had been preserved, it would be a key part of our tourism industry today.

It is also interesting to know that there were already people traveling for health, and later, tourists making round the world trips a hundred years ago. How rich were they to afford it!

Other than that, the writings seem to be heavily influenced by the nature of the writer themselves. The imperialist wrote of lazy natives and their barbaric customs, while the poetic traveler wrote of how beautiful and exotic these foreign practices were. It is quite clear here how pre-informed prejudices were being applied here, such is human nature.