












  TRADE AND TRAVEL
  IN THE
  FAR EAST;

  OR
  RECOLLECTIONS OF TWENTY-ONE YEARS
  PASSED IN
  JAVA, SINGAPORE, AUSTRALIA,
  AND CHINA.


  BY G. F. DAVIDSON.


  LONDON:
  MADDEN AND MALCOLM,
  LEADENHALL STREET.
  1846.


  LONDON:
  PRINTED BY MADDEN AND MALCOLM,
  8 LEADENHALL STREET.




PREFACE.


The following pages were written to beguile the tediousness of a long
voyage from Hong Kong to England, during the spring and summer of 1844.
When I state, that the whole was written with the paper on my knee, for
want of a desk, amid continual interruptions from three young children
lacking amusement during their long confinement on ship-board, and with
a perpetual liability to be pitched to leeward, paper and all,--I shall
have said enough to bespeak from every good-natured reader a candid
allowance for whatever defects may attach to the composition. It is
necessary, however, that I should also premise, that the sketches are
drawn entirely from memory, and that the incidents referred to in the
earlier chapters, took place some twenty years ago. That my recollection
may have proved treacherous on some minor points, is very possible; but,
