These are the two volumes of ‘An anecdotal history of old times in Singapore’, written by Charles Buckley and published in the Singapore Free Press. Taken together, it covers Singapore’s history and political, social, economic and religious conditions from 1511-1866, as well as various personalities and establishments. The manner in which the books are written justify the colonial rule of the time. Buckley writes that the Settlements were ‘founded and settled by the Europeans and there [ought] to be governed according to their laws and customs’. The language Buckley uses in describing local rituals is sometimes offensive and ignorant, calling a Hindu festival ‘cruel and disgusting’, and suggesting that it ‘pollute[s] the island’.
