dustrious inhabitants, absorbed in dreams of a golden
future, appear untroubled by any consciousness of metaphorically
sleeping on the brink of a volcano. Iced soda-water, and a brief
siesta, revive drooping spirits after the broiling exertions of the
morning, and as the shadows of the palm-trees lengthen on the edge of
the jungle, it becomes possible to mount the hill behind the wharf to
the picturesque bungalow of another kindly Scot, who invites me to tea.
The pretty tropical dwelling of plaited _atap_, through which every
precious breath of air can penetrate, stands in the midst of a gorgeous
thicket, composed of scarlet hybiscus and yellow Allemanda, the
splendid blossoms growing in wild luxuriance on this sandy soil. The
glare of the sun still requires the _atap_ screens to be closed on the
broad-eaved verandah, but the freshness of the evening breeze steals
into the twilight of the pretty drawing-room, the simple but refined
appointments of a restful home intensely refreshing after weeks of ship
and hotel existence. The fragrant tea, with dainty cups and saucers,
and the home-made cakes, seem almost forgotten luxuries, for the
amenities of British civilisation stop short at Singapore. A cheery
party assembles round the table, and these exiles on a foreign shore
extend the warmest of welcomes to the stray bird of passage, who will
soon leave behind only the shadowy "remembrance of a guest who tarrieth
but a day." The idea so familiar to the self-seeking spirit, that "it
is not worth while" to trouble about a passing acquaintance, finds no
echo in this hospitable coterie. To the visitor, the bright hours of
that afternoon, ten thousand miles away from England, remain as an
evergreen memory of genuine human sympathy, the true "touch of Nature"
linking hearts and lives. A long walk through the encroaching jungle
fills up the day. The narrow track skirts dark depths of matted
foliage, with strange bird-calls echoing through the gloom. The
phenomenal growth of vegetation in Borneo is so rapid that a month's
neglect in cutting back branches, and rooting up masses of strangling
creeper, would entirely obliterate the path. In six months a tree,
supposed to be cut down beyond possibility of resurrection, lately shot
up to the height of seventeen feet, with a girth of several inches in
diameter, so tenacious is the exuberant life of this irrepressible
vegetation, eternally renewing itself in immortal strength and primeval
fr