Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/102

72 Danish pilot who takes the ship to New Guinea; and King Peter of the French Islands. I represent the British Empire.

What a mixture—a French bishop, German naval captain, Hungarian professor, Danish pilot, German lady, a king, and a Scottish pleasure-pilgrim!—but the lion lay down with the lamb; no one ate any one else, and we are all quite happy and peaceable together. Captain Niedermayer is kindness and consideration itself, all the officers are friendly and pleasant, and to me personally every one is most charming, and I am quite at home. Germans and all their little ways are not strange to me. I appreciate what is good and pleasant in both, and there is much one can appreciate. I am the stranger amongst them, but they make much of me and then I am a Scotsman, not an Englishman, and that makes much difference, as it does amongst many peoples. For it must be remembered that, ere our Scottish King added the Estates of England to his Scottish Estates, whilst England was often at war with some continental State, Scotland was usually on terms of alliance or friendship with that same State. Very close were the bonds that for centuries knit Scotland with France, the Low Countries, Italy, Poland, and even Russia. The Scotsman to this day meets with a different welcome in those lands to what the Englishman does; moreover, he is not so insular as the other, and consequently adapts himself more naturally to the ways and customs of a foreign nation.

The dining-saloon is not large, but we are only a small party. We are waited on by three Chinese stewards from Singapore, and two German stewards. Captain Dunbar has also his bluejacket servant to wait on him—a bright, clean, active German boy. The cooks are also Singapore