AMONG MALAY PIRATES
A TALE OF ADVENTURE AND PERIL
by G. A. Henty.



CHAPTER I.


"I wish most heartily that something would happen," Harry Parkhurst,
a midshipman of some sixteen years of age, said to his chum, Dick
Balderson, as they leaned on the rail of her majesty's gunboat
Serpent, and looked gloomily at the turbid stream that rolled past
the ship as she lay at anchor.

"One day is just like another--one is in a state of perspiration
from morning till night, and from night till morning. There seems
to be always a mist upon the water; and if it were not that we
get up steam every three or four days and run out for twenty-four
hours for a breath of fresh air, I believe that we should be all
eaten up with fever in no time. Of course, they are always talking.
of Malay pirates up the river kicking up a row; but it never seems
to come off."

"There is one thing, Harry--there is always something to look
at, for there are canoes constantly going up and down, and there
is plenty of variety among them--from the sluggish dhows, laden
with up country produce, to the long canoes with a score of paddlers
and some picturesque ruffian sitting in the stern. It adds to the
interest when you know that the crews are cutthroats to a man, and