They generally attack weak or helpless vessels, and most of their strongholds have been rooted out." Mark watched the departing prau with no little eagerness as he recalled accounts which he had read of attacks by pirates, poisoned krises, and goodly vessels plundered by the bloodthirsty men of Moslem creed, who looked upon the slaying of a Christian as a meritorious act.
As he gazed after the retiring prau, with its dusky crew, a vessel, similar in shape and size, and which had been lying close alongside of the _Petrel_, heaved up her anchor and set sail.
"Where are they likely to be going ?" Mark asked.
"Trading among the islands.

They are rare fellows for pushing their way in a slow fashion, but are not such business people as the Chinese." "One might have thought that this was China," said Mark, as he gazed ashore at the celestial quarter, and noted the great junks manned by Chinamen lying anchored here and there.
The stay at Singapore was not long.

The three German students bade the passengers good-bye politely, and took their departure, beaming upon everyone through their spectacles, making quite a gap at the saloon table, though they were not much missed, for they had all been remarkably quiet, only talking to each other in a subdued manner, and always being busy with a book a piece, whose contents were tremendous dissertations on agricultural chemistry, all of which they were going to apply out in Queensland as soon as they got there.
Then one bright morning, well supplied with fresh provisions, and, to Mark's great delight, with an ample store of fruit--from bananas, of three or four kinds, to pine-apples, the delicious mangosteen, and the ill-odoured durian, with its wooden husk, delicate custard, and large seeds--the ship continued her course.
The sea was like crystal, and with the sun hot, but not to discomfort, and a soft breeze blowing, the great vessel glided gently eastward.

It was a trifle monotonous, but this troubled Mark in only small degree, for there was always something fresh to take his attention.

Sea-birds were seen; then some fish or another reared itself out of the limpid sea, and fell back with a splash.