sing carriage, we reached the town at a fairly
creditable canter.

November 28th.--To-day our short stay at Penang comes to a conclusion,
and a few days afterwards we are once more at Singapore.

CHAPTER VI.

"Merrily, merrily on we sail!
The sailor's life is gay!
His hopes are on the favouring gale,
And whether it freshens, or whether it fail
He recks not, cares not, no not he;
For his hope is ever upon the sea."

SARAWAK.--LABUAN.--MANILLA.--HEAVY WEATHER.

December 5th.--At 4 p.m. the anchor was hove short for our voyage to
Hong Kong, by way of Manilla. As we start some days sooner than we
anticipated, we had made no provision for getting our washed clothes on
board, and grave fears are entertained that we shall be compelled to
sail without it, for as yet there is not so much as the ghost of a
washerwoman in sight. Will they, can they by any fortuitous combination
of circumstances, put in an appearance before we leave? Despair, we are
off! But surely no, it can't be? Yes, by jove, there are boats pulling
after us with all the might the rowers can command. We lie to, the proas
come nearer. Hurrah! the clothes, some wholly washed, some half-washed,
and some not washed at all. Piles of fair white linen are bundled up
the gangway pell-mell, Malay washerwomen bundled _out_ ditto, and for
payment, the revolving screws settle that in a highly satisfactory
manner.

With the "Lapwing" in tow, and the gentlest of breezes filling the
lighter canvas, we shape our course eastward.

December 8th.--Late in the afternoon we brought up in the roadstead of
Sarawak, on the northern coast of Borneo. The place is not at all
enlivening; neither house, human being, nor boat, to indicate we are in
habitable land. The town itself, the capital of a small rajahship
governed by an Englishman, lies some twenty miles up a river, in the
estuary of which we are anchored. The province was presented by the
Sultan of Borneo, in 1843, to Sir James Brooke, uncle of the present
proprietor, who, on the decease of Sir James, in 1868, succeeded to the
territory.

Here the "Lapwing," after having taken the admiral up the river, parted
company, whilst we continued our way along the Bornean shore.

December 12th.--We awoke to find ourselves in the midst of a labyrinth
of isles most wonderful to behold, vaguely guessing which, out of so
many, can be Labuan. The rattling of the chain through the hawse,
decides it.