Very truly yours,

George Dewey.

Preface

These stories are the result of nine years’ residence and experience on the Malayan coast—that land of romance and adventure which the ancients knew as the Golden Chersonesus, and which, in modern times, has been brought again into the atmosphere of valor and performance by Rajah Brooke of Sarawak, the hero of English expansion, and Admiral George Dewey of the Asiatic squadron, the hero of American achievement. The author, in his official duties as Special Commissioner of the United States for the Straits Settlement and Siam, and, later, as Consul General of the United States at Hong Kong, has mingled with and studied the diverse people of the Malayan coast, from the Sultan of Johore and Aguinaldo the Filipino to the lowest Eurasian and “China boy” of that wonderful Oriental land. These stories are based on his experiences afloat and ashore, and are offered to the American public at this time when all glimpses of the land that Columbus sailed to find are of especial interest to the modern possessors of the land he really did discover.

Contents

  1. Page
  2. [Baboo’s Good Tiger] 9
  3. [Baboo’s Pirates] 28
  4. [How we Played Robinson Crusoe] 47
  5. [The Sarong] 66
  6. [The Kris] 74
  7. [The White Rajah of Borneo] 81
  8. [Amok!] 101
  9. [Lepas’s Revenge] 130
  10. [King Solomon’s Mines] 147
  11. [Busuk] 181
  12. [A Crocodile Hunt] 200
  13. [A New Year’s Day in Malaya] 219
  14. [In the Burst of the Southwest Monsoon] 230
  15. [A Pig Hunt on Mount Ophir] 254
  16. [In the Court of Johore] 270
  17. [In the Golden Chersonese] 293
  18. [A Fight with Illanum Pirates] 321