iterally walked knee deep in
exotics.

We carried large bundles of them on board, when we left that night after
a stay of only twelve hours.

Point de Galle was reached on the twelfth day, and here the mail steamer
from Calcutta by which I was to proceed to Bombay had already arrived. A
few of us went on shore with small caps on our heads and some with
cabbage tree hats, but we speedily discovered they would not do. The
heat on shore was intense, a muggy, stifling heat, which to us
Australians was killing. We were guided to the Bazaar, and introduced to
several hotels by some five score natives, whose numbers increased as we
proceeded, and were augmented by numerous sellers of sun toppee,
pugarees, etc. We were speedily provided each with a tropical headpiece
with a long tail of white muslin therefrom which hung down the back.

After a substantial "tiffin" in a large shady room, under the swaying
punkah (the first I had seen), it was proposed by some of our sable
friends that we should visit the tea gardens, one of the lions of Galle,
and I, forgetting all about the boat, was on the point of joining the
movement, having taken a seat in the conveyance for the purpose, when my
good angel, by some means I have now forgotten, informed me that the
steamer for Bombay would start in ten minutes.

I jumped from the carriage and ran full speed with a crowd of attendant
blacks in full cry at my heels, shot into the first boat I came to and
reached the steamer as the screw commenced to turn.

In four days we arrived at Bombay, where, in due course, I entered State
Service, and where I remained for thirty-five years, but my life and
experiences there may possibly form the subject of another story.

* * * * *

Printed by J.G. HAMMOND and Co., Ltd., 32-36, Fleet Lane, London, E.C.

End of Project Gutenberg's Five Years in New Zealand, by Robert B. Booth

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