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MALACCA AND MOUNT OPHIR.
(JULY TO SEPTEMBER, 1854.) BIRDS and most other kinds of animals being scarce at Singapore, I left it in July for Malacca, where I spent more than two months in the interior, and made an excursion to Mount Ophir.

The old and picturesque town of Malacca is crowded along the banks of the small river, and consists of narrow streets of shops and dwelling houses, occupied by the descendants of the Portuguese, and by Chinamen.

In the suburbs are the houses of the English officials and of a few Portuguese merchants, embedded in groves of palms and fruit-trees, whose varied and beautiful foliage furnishes a pleasing relief to the eye, as well as most grateful shade.
The old fort, the large Government House, and the ruins of a cathedral attest the former wealth and importance of this place, which was once as much the centre of Eastern trade as Singapore is now.

The following description of it by Linschott, who wrote two hundred and seventy years ago, strikingly exhibits the change it has undergone: "Malacca is inhabited by the Portuguese and by natives of the country, called Malays.