passed. under British "protection." The preceding brief sketch is
necessarily a very imperfect one, as to most of my questions addressed
on the spot and since to the best informed people, the answer has been,
"No information." The only satisfaction that I have in these
preliminary pages is, that they place the reader in a better position
than I was in when I landed at Malacca. To a part of this beautiful but
little known region I propose to conduct my readers, venturing to hope
for their patient interest in my journeyings over the bright waters of
the Malacca Straits and in the jungles of the Golden Chersonese.

I. L. B.



LETTER I

The Steamer Volga--Days of Darkness--First View of Hong Kong--Hong Kong
on Fire--Apathy of the Houseless--The Fire Breaks Out Again--An Eclipse
of Gayety


S.S. "VOLGA," CHINA SEA, Christmas Eve, 1878.

The snowy dome of Fujisan, reddening in the sunrise, rose above the
violet woodlands of Mississippi Bay as we steamed out of Yokohama
harbor on the 19th, and three days later I saw the last of Japan--a
rugged coast, lashed by a wintry sea.


THE PALACE, VICTORIA, HONG KONG, December 27.