only sons, and had too many mouths to feed. Even though this trade was brisk, the number of Chinese girls and women in Singapore was always a tiny percentage of the male population. Life for the enslaved Chinese prostitute was usually short and brutish. She had to serve the thousands of Chinese and Indian coolies, the soldiers of the army stationed in Singapore and the constant stream of sailors who washed up onshore. Death was often preferable, opium suicide common.
The white men might talk of home, of going home for years, but most stayed. Life was easy and free in the East. As for white women in Singapore, there had been a few wives of the officers, officials and missionaries, the many young girls of the da Silva family and the occasional arrival, like Charlotte herself. Men who did not care to risk the dangers of disease in the brothels or the dispiriting anonymity of loveless encounters took native girls as âwivesâ, nyais as they were called. Robert, himself, had had his nyai , Shilah, for many years before his marriage to Teresa. She had not yet had enough time to talk to him on this subject.
Nothing had changed for the local communities. It was in the European community that the change had come. The previous governor, Samuel Bonham, had been a bachelor; he paid no heed to how the young men spent their time, content to invite them into his bungalow for convivial evenings and otherwise leave them to their devices. He was old school, a man raised in ruder times when liaisons with native women were considered normal and because they kept one from whores and the attendant diseases, even healthy.
The arrival of Colonel William Butterworth, Companion of the Order of the Bath, had brought an insidious change in attitudes. He was a decorated soldier, where almost all governors before him had been civilians. He was newly come to the Straits, where most had spent all their lives here. He was married and his English wife brought a certain social expectation to the settlement. He was, in addition, a prig. His attitudes were those, she supposed, of a Great Britain which had never been in so close contact with its Eastern settlements as now. The sailing ships of the previous centuries were slow. Mail, orders, attitudes, were a year away from Singapore if they came at all. Men did as they pleased, made decisions and acted on them without thought of âback homeâ.
Now, steamships could travel at unheard-of speeds, and the new Egyptian Overland Route carried mail and passengers from Southampton via Gibraltar and Malta to Alexandria, up the Nile to Cairo, eighty miles by camel overland to Suez, down the Red Sea to Bombay and on to Singapore. A newspaper printed in London could now be read only forty days later in Singapore. It was unimaginable. The connection to âback homeâ, so long severed, was quickly being reestablished and with it, the feelings and attitudes of the mother country.
Charlotte felt almost like âold schoolâ herself. She had been only nine years in the East, but her experiences had made her wary of this newfound ârespectableâ Singapore. She did not like so much the changing attitudes to the mixed marriages which had been so common only a few short years ago. Then a white officer or official would have sought a wife, with pleasure, amongst the mixed-race girlsâthe children made as a result of married liaisons between white men and native women.
Now that was not always the case. Isabel da Silva, a plain young woman, had had the great misfortune to turn down marriage to a lieutenant in the Madras Regiment in the hope, as she told Charlotte, of a more handsome prospect. She now found herself in a position of less good circumstances for, within the space of two years, an officer of the regiment who had hopes of promotion would find such a union an insurmountable obstacle to advancement.
Her dark brothers and sisters, the offspring of Jose da Silvaâs six previous
The white men might talk of home, of going home for years, but most stayed. Life was easy and free in the East. As for white women in Singapore, there had been a few wives of the officers, officials and missionaries, the many young girls of the da Silva family and the occasional arrival, like Charlotte herself. Men who did not care to risk the dangers of disease in the brothels or the dispiriting anonymity of loveless encounters took native girls as âwivesâ, nyais as they were called. Robert, himself, had had his nyai , Shilah, for many years before his marriage to Teresa. She had not yet had enough time to talk to him on this subject.
Nothing had changed for the local communities. It was in the European community that the change had come. The previous governor, Samuel Bonham, had been a bachelor; he paid no heed to how the young men spent their time, content to invite them into his bungalow for convivial evenings and otherwise leave them to their devices. He was old school, a man raised in ruder times when liaisons with native women were considered normal and because they kept one from whores and the attendant diseases, even healthy.
The arrival of Colonel William Butterworth, Companion of the Order of the Bath, had brought an insidious change in attitudes. He was a decorated soldier, where almost all governors before him had been civilians. He was newly come to the Straits, where most had spent all their lives here. He was married and his English wife brought a certain social expectation to the settlement. He was, in addition, a prig. His attitudes were those, she supposed, of a Great Britain which had never been in so close contact with its Eastern settlements as now. The sailing ships of the previous centuries were slow. Mail, orders, attitudes, were a year away from Singapore if they came at all. Men did as they pleased, made decisions and acted on them without thought of âback homeâ.
Now, steamships could travel at unheard-of speeds, and the new Egyptian Overland Route carried mail and passengers from Southampton via Gibraltar and Malta to Alexandria, up the Nile to Cairo, eighty miles by camel overland to Suez, down the Red Sea to Bombay and on to Singapore. A newspaper printed in London could now be read only forty days later in Singapore. It was unimaginable. The connection to âback homeâ, so long severed, was quickly being reestablished and with it, the feelings and attitudes of the mother country.
Charlotte felt almost like âold schoolâ herself. She had been only nine years in the East, but her experiences had made her wary of this newfound ârespectableâ Singapore. She did not like so much the changing attitudes to the mixed marriages which had been so common only a few short years ago. Then a white officer or official would have sought a wife, with pleasure, amongst the mixed-race girlsâthe children made as a result of married liaisons between white men and native women.
Now that was not always the case. Isabel da Silva, a plain young woman, had had the great misfortune to turn down marriage to a lieutenant in the Madras Regiment in the hope, as she told Charlotte, of a more handsome prospect. She now found herself in a position of less good circumstances for, within the space of two years, an officer of the regiment who had hopes of promotion would find such a union an insurmountable obstacle to advancement.
Her dark brothers and sisters, the offspring of Jose da Silvaâs six previous
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