r the numerous small balls of which,
strung on wires, he was running his hands for amusement, as a gambler
will sometimes do with his checks. At the suggestion of the gentleman
who was with me, I requested him to multiply four places of figures by
three places, naming the figures, and the operation was done about as
rapidly as I could write down the result. Their shaved heads, and long
queues, sometimes nearly touching the ground, are curious features of
their personal appearance. The workshops front upon the streets, and in
them busy, half-naked creatures may be seen, working away as
industriously as so many beavers all day long, seeming never to tire of
their ceaseless toil.

Amid all this busy population I saw but one female in the streets, and
she was of the lower class. Dined in the country with Mr. Beaver. The
ride out was over good roads flanked by large forests and ornamental
trees, among which was the tall, slender, graceful palm of the
betel-nut. The Botanical Gardens are on an elevation commanding a fine
view of the town and the sea, and are laid out with taste, ornamented
with flowering trees and shrubs, and flowers. Hither a band of music
comes to play several times a week, when the townspeople turn out to
enjoy the scene. A few miles beyond the town the whole island is a
jungle, in which abounds the ferocious Bengal tiger. It is said that one
man and a half per day is the average destruction of human life by these
animals. Visited opium-preparation shop. It pays an enormous licence.

All this beauty fails to reconcile the European lady to this country, I
was told. The eternal sameness of summer, and the heat and moisture,
weigh upon them, and their husbands being away all day on business, they
pine for their European homes. The life seems agreeable enough to the
men. The Governor of the "Straits Settlement" is a Colonel.

_Thursday, Dec. 24._--Cloudy; five of my men deserted last night. The
Kwang-tung got under way at 8 1/2 A.M., and we followed her and steered
for the strait of Malacca. Several sails in sight; Malay pilot on board.
Passed the Kwang-tung very rapidly. At about 1 P.M. we fired a gun and
hove to an American-looking barque, under English colours, with the
name, "Martaban, of Maulmain," on her stern. Sent a boat on board; and
the officer reporting that she was an American-built ship, with English
register, and that the Master refused to come on board, I went on board
myself to examine the ca