indee, pilate
junk."

"But suppose we pass them?" I said.

"No pass pilate boat: Ching here."

"And so you think you will know them?"

The Chinaman screwed his face up into a curiously comic smile.

"Ching know pilate when he see him."

"And you think it better to go right up the river?" said Mr Brooke,
turning suddenly to join in the conversation.

"Yes; pilate junk long way."

"How do you know?"

He gave a cunning smile at us both, his little eyes twinkling in a
singularly sly manner.

"You see vegetable boat come along mo'ning?"

"Yes, I saw the boat come alongside."

"Blought Ching 'nothee lettee, allee same fliend. Say pilate boat long
way uppee liver in big cleek, waitee come down along lunning water in
the dalk."

"Then you pretty well know where they are?" said Mr Brooke.

"No; far uppee liver; in cleek."

"I suppose this is right?" said Mr Brooke to me.

"Yes, quite light. Ching likee see Queen Victolia ship killee catch
pilate."

"Give way, my men," said Mr Brooke, and the boat shot forward, while,
relieved for the moment from the task of scanning the different boats, I
sat gazing at the beautiful panorama of quaint houses, narrow streets
debouching on the river, and the house-boats all along the edge of the
river, while smaller boats were swinging here and there wherever there
was room.

It was a wonderfully interesting sight, for, in addition to the curious
shapes of the buildings, there was plenty of brilliant colour, and every
now and then patches of brightest blue and vivid scarlet were heightened
by the glistening gilding which ornamented some particular building.
Then there were temples dotted about amongst the patches of forest,
which fringed the high ground at the back of the city, and away beyond
them the steep scarps of rugged and jagged mountains, which stood up
looking of so lovely a pinky-blue, that I could for the moment hardly
believe they were natural, and was ready to ask whether it was not some
wonderful piece of painting.

The house-boats took my fancy greatly, for, in endless cases, they were
of a variety of bright colours, pretty in shape, and decorated with
showy flowers in pots and tubs; some had cages containing
brightly-plumaged birds, and in most of them quaint bald-headed little
children were playing about or fishing.

Higher up we saw men busy with nets which were attached to the end of a
great bamboo pole, balanced upon a strong upright post fixed in