Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 edition. Excerpt: ... DE LONG: A STORY OF SUNDA STRAITS "de Long was an interesting man," said Nichols. "In days gone by he kept a ship-chandlery at Old Anjer, that busy port of call on the Java shore of the Straits of Sunda, where every vessel that came to the China Sea passed either up or down at some time during the year. De Long met them all, in his Whitehall boat with four natives rowing. Once seen and heard, he was never forgotten. There are men despisable enough to be vastly interesting. One loathes them, abhors them--and is fascinated by them; one finds oneself repeating their words with a certain flavor of contemptuous enjoyment, and not at all displeased at the prospect of meeting them again. A real liking for them is almost sure to grow; one begins to, in a way, condone their meanness, is a trifle sorry for them, perhaps sees how it might have come about. Of this anomalous company was De Long. An interesting man, a personality; and his death was in keeping with his life. Let me tell you about him-- it won't take long." A few of us had gathered that evening on board the bark Omega, to welcome Nichols once more to the harbor-society of Singapore. He had arrived at noon from Batavia, standing across with the early seabreeze from the mouth of Rhio Strait. For some time his trips had kept him off among the islands; of the fleet that he had left in Singapore three months before, my ship alone remained. I'd introduced the later arrivals; and talk had drifted down through Banka and across the Java Sea, along the route that Nichols had just sailed. "I remember well the first time that I saw De Long," he said. "It was on my maiden voyage at sea; I had come out East, a boy of seventeen, with Captain H in the old ship Rainbow. We anchored at Anjer for mail and...