Some of the earliest detailed views made in Singapore waters appear in a chart entitled the Straits of Sincapore published in 1780 by British Admiralty hydrographer, Alexander Dalrymple (1737–1808).

Very little is known of Christopher Smith (died 1806?) and no known portrait exists. We do know that he was an Irish botanist who trained at Kew Gardens and that Joseph Banks (1743–1820) appointed him assistant to the botanist aboard the Providence to transplant breadfruit from Tahiti to the West Indies, which – unlike the first that ended in mutinous failure – was successful. The breadfruit business concluded, Banks arranged for Smith’s appointment as superintendent of the Botanic Gardens at Calcutta (today Kolkata). Delays in his arrival meant that this appointment was usurped and Smith was instead appointed nurseryman.

In 1795, Smith was informed of a naval squadron sailing to the Spice Islands (now Maluku Islands) and planned to rendezvous with the ships in Penang. He intended to make collections of plants there for Banks. Unfortunately, Smith literally missed the boat by six days. He made the most of this mishap by finding his own conveyance down the Straits of Malacca, travelling as far south as Barn Island (now Pulau Senang).

At Barn Island, Smith collected several specimens of plants. Two of these are now at the Natural History Museum in London. Today, these are the oldest natural history specimens from Singapore known to be in existence.

The specimens collected by Smith tell us what that 1769 sketch of Barn Island cannot. We now know what plants inhabited this island just off Singapore’s mainland almost 230 years ago. For such early specimens, the locality data associated with the specimens are also remarkably exact. The vast majority of specimens for over a century to come would simply have “Singapore” written on the labels.

These sketches and specimens – bits of data on bits of paper – are almost like postcards sent to us by acquaintances from over two centuries ago telling us what Singapore’s historical biodiversity was like. They are all the more valuable in that such materials are exceedingly rare in the decades before more familiar naturalists would begin collecting in Singapore in 1819, which would mark the beginning of over a century and a half of intensive natural history collecting in, and exploration, of the island.