View of the Town and Roads of Singapore from the Government Hill.

The artist, Captain Robert James Elliot (1790-1849), was the nephew of Sir Gilbert Elliot, the First Earl of Minto and Governor-General of India from 1807 to 1813, Robert Elliot served in the navy in 1814 and subsequently travelled to South America, the Pacific and Australia. The view looks seaward with the Singapore River at centre, Chinatown to the right and Telok Ayer Basin lies directly behind Chinatown. In 1819 Raffles had proposed that the Plain should be reserved for official use. His ideas were shown in a proposed plan of the town, drawn up in 1823 by the garrison engineer Ltn Philip Jackson. Singapore’s success as a port led to a rapid increase in the population from a few hundred in 1819 to over 10,000 in 1824. During William Farquhar’s residency 1819-23 merchants were permitted to build houses on the Plain which can clearly be seen in this print. When Raffles returned to Singapore in October 1822 he demanded the destruction of some buildings and return to the system of roads previously planned. The orders to demolish the buildings was never executed. References National Museum, Nineteenth Century Prints of Singapore 1987 Ill. pl 3, p.75, Pl 3. Wong, Singapore through 19th Century Prints &amp Paintings 2010 p.89, ill. p89