figures of the good Buddha, alternately standing and sitting,
depicted with that calm, inscrutable countenance so remarkable in the
image of this deity wherever this religion prevails. Before each
figure is a small altar, littered with flowers, the most conspicuous
blossom being the lotus lily, the symbol of this faith. Other than
these devotional oblations there is little to be seen; what part in the
ceremonies the priests take, or where they perform their functions,
does not appear.

At the gate of the Court on our passing out, stands a bold, yellow-robed
priest, with a metal salver in his hand, suggestive of donations. We
told the old gent with naval bluntness that we were not in the habit of
aiding the Society for the propagation of paganism--a remark, by the
way, which it was as well, perhaps, he could not understand.

Sunday, October 6th.--Though sailors are excellent singers--especially
of hymn tunes--I never before heard a hymn rendered so effectively on
board a man-of-war as that beautiful composition by Bishop Heber,
commencing

"What though the spicy breezes
Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle,"

and which was one of the appropriate hymns for our morning Service.

October 8th.--Towards evening we bade good-bye to this favoured land,
and stood away to the eastward. We had made good an offing, and set
everything aloft snug for the night, when heavy volumes of steam were
found to be issuing from the regions of the engine-room. A steam pipe
had burst, a fracture of so little moment that after a short delay to
effect repairs we were able to resume our voyage. But though the damage
was not serious, so far as the ship was concerned, to us, personally, it
was a matter of some consequence, on account of our bags and chests
being stowed immediately over the fractured pipe; and in order to secure
our property, we were compelled to make a blind rush for it,
re-appearing from our vapour bath, as red as boiled lobsters.

A splendid eight knot breeze brought us, after a few days, off Acheen
head, in Sumatra, and at the entrance of the Straits of Malacca. And
here, the monsoon which had favoured us over so many miles of the
pathless ocean, suddenly forsook us. Sails were of no further use, and
we braced up our sweat glands for four or five days of increasing heat.
In obedience to the demands of an imperious, ever-rising, thermometer,
we reduced our rig to the least possible articles consistent with
decency and the r