ten o'clock
Whistles from the factories , salvos from Fort Canning , bells from the churches , Chinese tom-toms , Malay horns , rent the air from that hour until dawn with all the discords of the Orient and a few from Europe . By daylight the thousands of natives from all quarters of the peninsula and neighboring islands had gathered along the broad Ocean Esplanade of Singapore in front of the Cricket Club House , to take part in or watch the native sports by land and sea . The inevitable Chinaman was there , the Kling , the Madrasman , the Sikh , the Arab , the Jew , the Chitty , or Indian money-lender , -- they were all there , many times multiplied , unconsciously furnishing a background of extraordinary variety and picturesqueness . At ten o'clock the favored representatives of the Anglo-Saxon race took their place on the great veranda of the Cricket Club , and gave the signal that we would condescend to be amused for ten hours . Then the show commenced . There were not over two hundred white people to represent law and civilization amid the teeming native population . In the centre of the beautiful esplanade or playground rose the heroic statue of Sir Stamford Raffles , the English governor who made Singapore possible .