In Singapore

In the daytime, Europeans stay inside their houses: the sun, whose rays heat up the reddish volcanic dust of the alleys, doesn’t allow them to go for walks. When business calls them to the malaysian city, they get in their palanquin, a long and narrow carriage in which two people only can sit, opposite one another. The palanquin is hitched up to a small persian horse, led by a Hindu who walks, runs or gallops in front or at the side of the carriage. In the evening, when the sun has disappeared from the horizon and the sea breeze rises, Europeans go for rides on horses or in palanquins, on an avenue that runs along the bay or on roads that lead, through various places, to the inner island.
 
Extract from L’Illustration, N° 772 on 12 December 1857.