After dinner we took the train back, and were shown into a compartment occupied by a honeymooning Anglo-Indian couple of planters, whose wedding day was only twenty days old. They didn’t seem pleased to be disturbed, especially the young bride, who vented her ill-humour upon her husband, and was decidedly inclined to be disagreeable to him. The evil temper of his consort forced the young planter to take refuge in the corridor.
On arriving at Colombo we went straight on board the Orel and weighed anchor in the night.
July 11th.—As soon as we entered the gulf of Bengal, the rocking of the ship became so unpleasant, that I shut myself up in my cabin for the whole day.
July 12th.—The sea continues to be very rough. Towards night, when we approached the lighthouse at the entrance of the Bay of Malacca, the rolling of the boat ceased suddenly.
July 15th.—We approach Sumatra. The bay is strewn with treacherous coral-shelves. This morning, whilst I was dressing, the alarm bell sounded. I heard voices shouting “Help, help, man overboard!” It was a manœuvre of false alarm, which nearly came to end by a veritable catastrophe. Whilst dropping a life-boat one of the sailors fell himself into the sea, but help, fortunately, came in time.
CHAPTER XCIX
SINGAPORE
July 16th.—We arrived at Singapore this morning and put up at the Hôtel d’Europe. Before dinner we went for a drive out of town, passing through a Malay village perched on piles in cocoa plantations. The hillocks are strewn with villas, like the outskirts of London. On our way back we crossed the Square, the centre of European commerce, with large bazaars and markets.
Singapore, according to its population, is a veritable Tower of Babel. We are amidst natives of every variety of shade, from sepia to chocolate: Majestic Arabs, arrayed in long flowing robes, Hindoos in white tunics and bright red turbans, Malays, Chinamen, Persians, etc. The Malay women are very black, with the fewest clothes that it was possible to wear and nose-rings and beads hanging everywhere. They carry on their backs black babies with woolly hair and white eyes like nice Newfoundland puppies. Ambulant cooks walk amongst the crowd; they carry two round chests, containing a small stove, on which they fry nasty-smelling roasts; in another box, on wooden trays, are placed bowls containing minced meats of all kinds; a whole lot of little horrors, which the natives snap up with the aid of long chopsticks, sitting on their heels on the ground and turning their backs to the passers-by. Black policemen, dressed European fashion, with a white stick in their hand, keep order in the streets.