Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/313

Rh seem to go well—indeed "All the world is wondering"—but you are surely feeling it very hot to-day, you are quite flushed and panting—let us have another cool drink?”

Here there is a yell and a general Donnerwetter—it is “Preety Cockay” who was forgotten for a moment and brings himself to some one’s remembrance—sharply!

[There comes here into my mind a remark I heard a pretty English girl make to her German husband as we entered the harbour of Hong-Kong in the evening and saw all the harbour and the island blazing with lights, and up a thousand feet to the Peak—a magnificent sight that did make one feel proud. “Otto! Otto!” she cried, “do come here. You must say it is beautiful— even if it is English! ’’]

We crossed the Java sea with all its phraus and beauty, the brown sails wafting the rich merchandise to other lands—how great a thing is commerce in this world; it makes or mars a land.

It is a wonderland, that long stretch of mountainous volcanic’ islands reaching from the Asiatic mainland to Timor—Sumatra, Java, Bali, Sumbawa, Flores, and Timor, to say nothing of hundreds of lesser isles and islets. No wonder the Germans, the Japanese, and others look upon them with the lustful, greedy eye—it is not for me to revile them for that, since I am doing the same myself. Let us glance a little at these wonderful possessions of the Hollander.