[1] The Malaya Tribune called the book a "chronological achievement of no mean merit" and a "comprehensive work which will create intense interest among countless generations to come".

[1] Lim Yoon Lin of The Straits Times wrote that "despite the book's obvious weaknesses", it "remains an invaluable source for history students and others who are curious about Singapore's past".

"[4] Following a 1924 reissue, The Malaya Tribune called the book "deeply interesting" and "obviously a labour a love" that involved a "vast amount of patient research".

[5] The Birmingham Post wrote that the book contained a "great deal of interesting matter", which is "overlaid by an even vaster mass of detail, to Mr. Song Ong Siang entirely germane but to the reader somewhat irrelevant and impertinent."

[6] The Solicitors Journal wrote that while the book is "too full of local colour, perhaps, for ordinary English readers", it is "excellently written and illustrated with a great wealth of portraits and other pictures.