86 PEAIBIE AND FOREST. 



make out of it ? " said I, half indignant, still partially 

 appeased. 



" Why," returned he, " a map of Asia, and these 

 splashes are the Malay Archipelago ; don't you see, it is 

 as plain as a pike-staff, there is Sumatra, Java, Borneo, 

 and the Celebes; that is the Straits of Malacca and those 

 Sunda. Well, I have often thought of going to them 

 parts, for the oftener I spit the more frequently I make 

 the self-same show, clearly telling that there is a opening 

 in that county for a man of intellect and energy. You are 

 not listening, but look here, Britisher, just look how quick 

 the Hindostan peninsula dried up, showing nairey a doubt, 

 that there ain't a show for a Yankee nohow in that 

 benighted land/' 



From my own experience I knew there was a deal of 

 truth in what the Massachusetts schoolmaster said, and I 

 wished old England would only see the necessity of holding 

 in her own hands these self-same Straits of Malacca and 

 Sunda with the same jealous care as she does our Indian 

 empire, as through them all our most valuable commerce 

 must pass to the populous north-eastern shores of the 

 Pacific. 



Pleasant company, yet a great character was this 

 Yankee ; here he was evidently on a hunting-tour, yet he 

 could not shoot, and when in search of game, in spite of 

 remonstrance, would frequently produce his tuning-fork, 

 and strike up some doleful psalm through his nose, instead 

 of from his mouth, to let the hills of this heathen land 

 resound, as he said, to the songs of the Lord. 



Mr. Schoolmaster for I found out he was a dominie ; 



