ength we arrived at the village of the conquerors, when, as they had
no muskets to fire or cannons to discharge, they set up the most
terrific yells I ever heard, to announce their arrival and victory. The
shouts were answered by the people of the village, who rushed out to
meet them and welcome them with every demonstration of joy. Blount
instantly set to work to have a cottage prepared for Eva and me. A very
neat one was provided, situated on a sloping bank above a running
stream, and backed by a grove of palm-trees. It was built partly of the
wood of the Nibong palm, and partly of bamboo, and was thatched with
palm-leaves. It was indeed a very light and pretty structure, and
perfectly clean. The furniture consisted simply of a quantity of
beautifully-made mats, to answer the purpose of tables and chairs,
carpets, beds, and bedding, while gourds of many sizes, and pieces of
bamboo, supplied us with our cooking and mess utensils. Eva surveyed
our abode with unfeigned delight.

"We might be perfectly happy here, I am sure, all the days of our
lives," she exclaimed. "Don't you think so, my dear Mark?"

"Indeed, Eva, I do not," I answered. "We are glad at length to be at
rest; but we should very soon get tired of the companionship of savages,
and I have a notion that man is not born to vegetate; he should be up
and doing. It is a question every man should ask himself constantly:
What have I done lately to benefit my fellow-creatures? Have I played
my part as an educated intellectual man in advancing the moral and
social condition of my less-favoured fellow-men? or have I merely
considered how I can best amuse myself, without a thought for their
welfare? O Eva, I used, even as a boy, to be so disgusted when in
England, and also in India, I saw men so capable of better things,
employing their time in shooting, fishing, and hunting, or in the most
frivolous pursuits, worthy only of uneducated savages, who must so
occupy themselves to live, and all the time not in the slightest degree
aware that they were actually sinning--that they were hiding their
talents--that they were useless beings--that they might better not have
been born."

"Oh, but then, my dear Mark, we may do a great deal of good here, I am
sure," exclaimed Eva, interrupting me. "We may civilise these fierce
savages--we may teach them Christianity--we may show them how much
happier they may be by living peaceably, than by going to war, and
cutting