There Is Not Very Much Comfort When One
Leaves The Beaten Tracks Of Travel, But Any Loss Is Far More Than Made
Up For By The Intense Enjoyment.
It was a delightful night.
The moon was only a hemisphere, yet I think
she gave more light than ours at the full. The night was so exquisite
that I was content to rest without sleeping; the Babel noises of fowls
and men had ceased, and there were only quiet sounds of rippling water,
and the occasional cry of a sea-bird as we slipped through the waveless
sea. When the moon set, the sky was wonderful with its tropic purple
and its pavement and dust of stars. I have become quite fond of the
Southern Cross, and don't wonder that the early navigators prostrated
themselves on deck when they first saw it. It is not an imposing
constellation, but it is on a part of the sky which is not crowded with
stars, and it always lies aslant and obvious. It has become to me as
much a friend as is the Plough of the northern regions.
At daybreak the next morning we were steaming up the Klang river, whose
low shores are entirely mangrove swamps, and when the sun was high and
hot we anchored in front of the village of Klang, where a large fort on
an eminence, with grass embankments in which guns are mounted, is the
first prominent object. Above this is a large wooden bungalow with an
attap roof, which is the British Residency.
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