are at anchor there, and as we pass out slowly we see island after
island all covered with that rich green growth which is the result of
the constant rain and warmth. Blue and green and gold is the world, and
the little brown boys play about their water-built villages, tumbling in
and out of the water, and living in the warm sea as much as on land day
by day. Shoals of them come round us in their catamarans and dive for
money, catching the silver bit as it twinkles down through the water,
even though they make their spring from many yards off. As we get
farther out we feel the difference in temperature at once, for now we
are heading north, and the night is cold and rough--it is like passing
into another climate.

[Illustration: PIGTAILS.]

These are wonderful seas, and dearly should I like some day to bring you
on a cruise in and about this group of great islands to the south, which
is like nothing else in the world! There is Borneo, that gigantic
island, twice as large as the British Isles, which belongs partly to the
British and partly to the Dutch. The story of Sir Stamford Raffles is
outdone by the story of the Rajah of Sarawak, which shows that even in
our own times the blood of Drake and Cook runs in the veins of
Englishmen.

Hong-Kong is another island and also belongs to the British; it was
given to them by treaty in 1841. As we sail in under the lee of the
island by the narrow entrance to the bay between it and the mainland, we
see what a splendid natural harbour this is. High above on the island
rises what is called the Peak, and up and up and up it, in rows and
terraces, are the houses of the people who live here. We can go up the
Peak by a tram-line if we have time. The city is called Victoria, and is
actually built on the rock or, rather, on terraces cut out of the face
of it, one above the other. It is strange to find this little British
colony isolated here on a bit of China, separated from the real China by
half a mile of sea. As the steamer comes to rest on the mainland side at
Kowloon Wharf we must take a ferry over to the city.

Once we are there we find a well-built town with wide roads, tree lined
and very clean; there are many quite English-looking buildings of stone,
and in the shops a strange mixture of wares, European and Eastern. Some
of the shops are piled with the rich Eastern silk embroideries, ivory
and lacquer work, carvings and fans, silver and metal work, paintings
and furniture.