STRAITS SETTLEMENTS, on the' northern boundary of the Straits of Malacca, include tinder one government, Penang, Province Wellesley, the Ding Dings, Malacca, and Singapore, and were iucorporated in one Administration in 1826. These settlements ceased to be connected with India on 1st February 1867, when they became a Crown colony. The inhabitants in 1871 were returned— Singapore, . . . 97,111 I Penang and Province Malacca, . . . 77,756 1 Wellesley, . . 133,230 The census taken in 1881 gives the total popu lation of the Straits Settlements as 423,384, of which 1656 are resident Europeans and Americans, 174,327 Chiuese, 238,066 Malays and other Asiatics, 316 Jews and Armenians, and 6004 Eurasians. A rapid increase is taking place in the actual numbers of Chinese, as well as in the proportion they bear to the whole population ; and it is remarked that the numbers of Chinese women, though still only 127 in the 1000, has increased in the last ten year& In 1871 the pro portion was 107 per 1000.
The inhabitants of Malacca and Province Welles ley consist chiefly of 3Ialays and Chinese, with scarcely civilised tribes of Jakun, Binua, and Sexnang.
Penang is a beautifully-wooded island, situated at the north-western entrance of the Straits of Malacca, or in about lat. 5° 25' N., and long. 100° 21' E., and is about 13i miles long, with an ex treme breadth of 10 miles, containing an area of nearly 70,000 acres.
Penang was obtained in 1786 by treatyfrom the king of Quedah ; and fourteen years later, Pro vince Wellesley was ceded by the same prince. In 1881, its population, with Province Wellesley, numbered 190,597, viz. Malays, 84,724 ; Chinese,
67,502 ; Tamils, 25,094 ; Europeans and Eurasians, 2271 ; Arabs, 574 ; Armenians and Jews, each 32.
Malacca has a sea frontage of forty-three miles, with a depth of ten to twenty-eight miles. The town is in lat. 2° 16' N. Its population, 93,579. Amongst them, Malays, 67,488; Chinese, 19,741 ; Europeans, 40 ; Eurasians, 2213.
Malacca, conquered by Albuquerque for the Portuguese about 1515, fell into the hands of the Dutch in the beginning of the 17th century, but was taken by the British in 1795. They kept it until, in 1818, it was redelivered to the Dutch under the provisions of the treaty of Vienna, but it again reverted to the British by the treaty of 1824.
Singapore island is twenty-four miles long by fourteen broad, and contains an area of 206 square iniles. The town is in lat. 1° 17' N., and long. 103° 51' E. Singapore has never changed Euro pean owners. In 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles, then governor of Fort Marlborough, or Bencoolen, in Sumatra, who had been long impressed with the importance of the position, took formal possession of the then nearly uninhabited island. Popula tion, 139,208. Amongst others, Chinese, 86,766 ; Malays, 22,114 ; Europeans, with military, and Eurasians, 5862.
Province TVellesley is on the mainland of the penm.sula, immediately opposite Penang, the water dividmg them being about three miles broad at the narrowest point. It runs from north to south twenty-five miles, varying in breadth from four to eleven miles, and containing an area, of 15,000 acres.