and the Dutch mail-boat; the homely sampan,
the yacht of the globe-trotting millionaire, the collier, the
timber-ship, and in point of fact every description of craft that plies
between the Barbarian East and the Civilized West. The first glimpse of
the harbour is one that will never be forgotten; the last is usually
associated with a desire that one may never set eyes on it again. He who
would, of his own free will, settle down for life in Singapore, must
have acquired the tastes of a salamander, and the sensibility of a frog.

Among its other advantages, Singapore numbers the possession of a
multiplicity of hotels. There is stately Raffles, where the
globe-trotters do mostly take up their abode, also the Hotel de
l'Europe, whose virtues I can vouch for; but packed away in another and
very different portion of the town, unknown to the wealthy G.T., and
indeed known to only a few of the white inhabitants of Singapore itself,
there exists a small hostelry owned by a lynx-eyed Portuguese, which
rejoices in the name of the Hotel of the Three Desires. Now, every man,
who by mischance or deliberate intent, has entered its doors, has his
own notions of the meaning of its name; the fact, however, remains that
it is there, and that it is regularly patronized by individuals of a
certain or uncertain class, as they pass to and fro through the Gateway
of the Further East. This in itself is strange, inasmuch as it is said
that the proprietor rakes in the dollars by selling liquor that is as
bad as it can possibly be, in order that he may get back to Lisbon
before he receives that threatened knife-thrust between the ribs which
has been promised him so long. There are times, as I am unfortunately
able to testify, when the latter possibility is not so remote as might
be expected. Taken altogether, however, the Hotel of the Three Desires
is an excellent place to take up one's abode, provided one is not
desirous of attracting too much attention in the city. As a matter of
fact its patrons, for some reason of their own, are more _en evidence_
after nightfall than during the hours of daylight. They are also frugal
of speech as a rule, and are chary of forming new acquaintances. When
they know each other well, however, it is surprising how affable they
can become. It is not the smallest of their many peculiarities that they
seldom refer to absent friends by their names. A will ask B when he
expects to hear from _Him_, and C will inform D t