ach the pier where the launch is waiting.

Soon after we get on board, the _Delhi_ moves out into the night down
the Strait of Malacca. Singapore is only thirty hours' voyage ahead, and
the steamer follows closely the coast of the Malay Peninsula. At sunrise
on October 24 we arrive. Singapore is the chief town of the Malay
Peninsula, which is subject to Great Britain, and contains nearly a
quarter of a million inhabitants--Europeans, Malays, Indians, but mostly
Chinese. All steamers to and from the Far East call at Singapore, which
is also the chief commercial emporium for the Sunda Islands and the
whole of the Dutch Archipelago. It lies one degree of latitude north of
the equator, and the consequence is that there is a difference of only
three degrees of temperature between winter and summer. It is always
warm, and rain falls almost every day.

At five o'clock the same afternoon the _Delhi_ steams out again,
accompanied by a swarm of light canoes rowed by naked copper-brown Malay
boys. These boys swim like fishes, and they come out to the steamers to
dive for silver coins which the passengers throw into the sea for them.
When the _Delhi_ increases her pace, they drop behind and paddle back to
the harbour with the proceeds of their diving feats. The sound gradually
widens out, and as long as twilight lasts the land and islands are in
sight. Then we turn off north-eastwards, leaving the equator behind us,
and steer out over the Chinese Sea after having doubled the southernmost
extremity of the Asiatic mainland.

UP THE CHINA SEA

In two days we had left Cochin-China, Saigon, and the great delta of the
Mekong behind us, and when on October 27 we came into contact with the
current from the north-east which sweeps along the coast of Annam, the
temperature fell several degrees and the weather became fresher and more
agreeable. The north-east monsoon had just set in, and the farther we
sailed northwards the harder it would blow in our faces. We had then to
choose between two routes--either out to sea with heavy surge and
boisterous wind; or along the coast, where the current would similarly
hinder us. Whichever way was chosen the vessel would lose a couple of
knots in her speed. The captain chose the course along the coast.

The eastern part of the peninsula of Further India consists of the
French possessions, Cambodia, Cochin-China, Annam, and Tonkin. Hanoi,
the capital of Tonkin, is the headquarters of the Governor-Ge