And so it came about. John Crawfurd[1] was the new Resident of Singapore, appointed by the Governor-General of India.
Crawfurd arrived in Singapore on the twenty-seventh of May, where he was received with a guard of honour and a fifteen–gun salute. ‘Welcome tae Singapore, John.’ Colonel Farquhar shook the hand of his old friend and countryman. ‘I’m afraid Sir Stamford couldna come down to meet you, on account of his headache, but I’m sure he’s already filled ye in on your duties and his expectations.’
‘Good to see you again, William,’ Crawfurd replied, returning the handshake. ‘And you’re right about Raffles––I’ve a set o’ instructions as lang’s my arm.’[2]
‘Well then, why don’t ye come back to my place, and I can gie you my side of the story before he blackens my name forever.’
‘Be my pleasure, William,’ Crawfurd replied. ‘I don’t officially take up my position until the eighth of June, the day Raffles departs for Bencoolen. Although nae doubt I’ll hear from him before then.’
* * *
Chan Hian Chuan slept soundly, without care or worry, his money chest safely locked at the foot of his bed. A slave from Sarawak stood guard outside his window, a former pirate who had been captured and sold by a rival fleet––he had cruel scars on his face and body that proved he had been in many fights. In the room beyond, two Chinese servants slept on mats outside Chan’s bedroom door.
Lee Yip Lee hid in the shadows behind a chilli bush at the edge of the courtyard-–it provided just enough cover for a man of his size. He signalled to the tiger soldier who crouched at the side of the house, and the man opened a bag to release a black cobra, which hissed and reared its head in its unfamiliar surroundings. The slave, distracted as he was meant to be, turned towards it, sword drawn, and Yip Lee rushed up behind him. He split the man’s skull with one great sweep of his axe, and caught his body before it fell. The black cobra slithered off into the darkness. Yip Lee laid the body gently on the ground, then, lifting the matting from the window, he climbed silently into Chan Hian Chuan’s bedroom.
The merchant still slept soundly, and Yip Lee crept across to where he lay. He raised his axe again, and brought it down across the merchant’s throat. Bright red blood sprayed from his severed jugular and splashed across the bed and Yip Lee’s chest. Chan Hian Chuan did not cry out, but gurgled as he gasped his dying breaths. Yip Lee struck three more times, until Chan’s head was completely severed from his body.
When he was done, Yip Lee went over to the merchant’s money chest, smashed the lock with his axe, and taking out a small sack from under his shirt, proceeded to fill it with silver dollars. He counted out five hundred dollars, then one hundred dollars more. Then he lifted Chan Hian Chuan’s head from the bed and placed it in the money chest. He closed the lid over the dead man’s eyes.
As he handed the bag of silver out to the waiting tiger soldier, the two Chinese servants entered the room. They stared in horror at the scene before them, their eyes moving from the headless body on the bloody bed to the axe in Yip Lee’s hand. Yip Lee pulled his shirt over his right shoulder,[3] challenging them to fight, but they stood as still as statues, their eyes staring wide and wild in their sockets. Yip Lee turned and climbed out the window, and slipped into the night with the tiger soldier following close behind.
The next day Mr Bernard took down descriptions of the murderer from the two Chinese servants. He thought their descriptions narrowed down the number of potential suspects to about two thirds of the Chinese population in Singapore. And he knew it was futile to search for the man, for he knew the servants would never testify in court. The next day the servants disappeared, and were never again seen in the settlement.
A few days later the White Fan, the officer of the Ghee Hin charged with enforcing society discipline, visited the home of Tan Che Sang and handed over the bag of silver. It contained five hundred dollars, plus twenty per cent interest, the repayment of Chan’s gambling debt.