you can see ninety miles in the clear
atmosphere, far away across the Straits of Perak to the mainland. We
could not stay long, and were carried down the hill backwards, as our
bearers were afraid of our tumbling out of the chairs if we travelled
forwards. The tropical vegetation is even more striking here, but,
alas! it is already losing its novelty to us. Those were indeed
pleasant days when everything was new and strange; it seems now
almost as if years, not months, had gone past since we first entered
these latitudes. We found the carriage waiting for us when we arrived
at the bottom of the hill about seven o'clock, and it was not long
before we reached the town.

The glowworms and fireflies were numerous. The natives were cooking
their evening meal on the ground beneath the tall palm-trees as we
passed, with the glare of the fires lighting up the picturesque huts,
their dark figures relieved by their white and scarlet turbans and
waist-cloth. The whole scene put us very much in mind of the old
familiar pictures of India, the lithe figures of the natives looking
like beautiful bronze statues, the rough country carts, drawn by
buffaloes without harness, but dragging by their hump, and driven by
black-skinned natives armed with a long goad. We went straight to the
jetty, and found to our surprise that in the roads there was quite a
breeze blowing, and a very strong tide running against it, which made
the sea almost rough.

Mrs. and Miss Anson, Mr. Talbot, and other friends, dined with us. At
eleven they landed, and we weighed anchor, and were soon gliding
through the Straits of Malacca, shaping for Acheen Head, _en route_ to
Galle.

It seems strange that an important English settlement like Penang,
where so many large steamers and ships are constantly calling, should
be without lights or quarantine laws. We afterwards learned on shore
that the local government had already surveyed and fixed a place for
two leading lights. The reason why no health officers came off to us
this morning was probably that, small-pox and cholera both being
prevalent in the town, they thought that the fewer questions they
asked, and the less they saw of incoming vessels, the better.

_Friday, March 23rd_.--A broiling day, everybody panting, parrots and
parrakeets dying. We passed a large barque with every sail set,
although it was a flat calm, which made us rejoice in the possession
of steam-power. Several people on board are very unwel