Thinking it over, it struck me that I had been overharsh in my judgment of the homesick exiles who in this far corner of the earth are clinching the rivets of France's colonial empire.
The next morning I set sail from Saigon for China. Leaving the mouth of the river in our wake, we rounded the mighty promontory of Cap St. Jacques and headed for the open sea. The palm-fringed shore line of Cochin-China dropped away; the blue mountains of Annam turned pale and ghostly in the evening mists. A sun-scorched, pestilential land.... I was glad to leave it. But already I am longing to return. I want once more to sit at a café table beneath the awnings of the Rue Catinat, before me a tall glass with ice tinkling in it. I want to hear the pousse-pousse coolies padding softly by in the gathering twilight. I want to see the little Annamite women in their sleazy silken garments and the boisterous, swaggering legionnaires in their white helmets. I want to stroll once more beneath the tamarinds beside the Mekong, to smell the odors of the hot lands, to hear again the throbbing of the tom-toms and the soft music of the wind-blown temple bells. For
"When you've 'eard the East a-callin'
You won't never 'eed naught else."
Transcriber's Notes:
Inconsistencies in the hyphenation of words preserved. (blind-folded, blindfolded; body-guard, bodyguard; coast-guard, coastguard; co-operation, cooperation; co-terminous, coterminous; cock-fighting, cockfighting; harbour-master, harbourmaster; head-dresses, headdresses; light-houses, lighthouses; net-work, network; off-shore, offshore; old-time, oldtime; three-score, threescore; to-day, today; to-morrow, tomorrow; water-front, waterfront; white-washed, whitewashed; wide-spread, widespread)
Table of Contents, heading for Chapter IX says "Prospect Rulers and Comic Opera Courts" while the chapter heading in the main text says "Puppet Rulers and Comic Opera Courts". "Puppet" is more likely to have been the word intended by the author but the original words have been preserved in both cases.
Pg. 73, opening double quote mark at beginning of paragraph removed as text here does not appear to be quoted speech and there is no closing quote at the end. (There is held each year)
Pg. 79, "Portgual" changed to "Portugal". (King of Portugal, had shifted)
Pg. 148, "ampitheatre" is more commonly spelled "amphitheatre". Author's original text preserved.
Pg. 209, "Turquoise Mosque in Samarland". "Samarland" is more likely to be "Samarkand" but the author's original text is preserved.