It seems strange that an important English settlement like Penang, where so many large steamers and ships are constantly calling, should be without lights or quarantine laws.  We afterwards learned on shore that the local government had already surveyed and fixed a place for two leading lights.  The reason why no health officers came off to us this morning was probably that, small-pox and cholera both being prevalent in the town, they thought that the fewer questions they asked, and the less they saw of incoming vessels, the better.

Friday, March 23rd.—­A broiling day, everybody panting, parrots and parrakeets dying.  We passed a large barque with every sail set, although it was a flat calm, which made us rejoice in the possession of steam-power.  Several people on board are very unwell, and the engineer is really ill.  It is depressing to speculate what would become of us if anything went wrong in the engine-room department, and if we should be reduced to sail-power alone in this region of calmness.  At last even I know what it is to be too hot, and am quite knocked up with my short experience.

[Illustration:  How the Journal was written]

Saturday, March 24th.—­Another flat calm.  The after-forecastle, having been battened down and fumigated for the last seventy-two hours, was to-day opened, and its contents brought up on deck, some to be thrown overboard, and others to be washed with carbolic acid.  I never saw such quantities of things as were turned out; they covered the whole deck, and it seemed as if their cubic capacity must be far greater than that of the place in which they had been stowed.  Besides the beds and tables of eight men, there were forty-eight birds, four monkeys, two cockatoos, and a tortoise, besides Japanese cabinets and boxes of clothes, books, china, coral, shells, and all sorts of imaginable and unimaginable things.  One poor tortoise had been killed and bleached white by the chlorine gas.

Sunday, March 25th.—­Hotter than ever.  It was quite impossible to have service either on deck or below.  We always observe Sunday by showing a little extra attention to dress, and, as far as the gentlemen are concerned, a little more care in the matter of shaving.  On other days I fear our toilets would hardly pass muster in civilised society.  Tom set the example of leaving off collars, coats, and waistcoats; so shirts and trousers are now the order of the day.  The children wear grass-cloth pinafores and very little else, no shoes or stockings, Manilla or Chinese slippers being worn by those who dislike bare feet.  I find my Tahitian and Hawaiian dresses invaluable:  they are really cool, loose, and comfortable, and I scarcely ever wear anything else.

We passed a large steamer about 7.30 a.m., and in the afternoon altered our course to speak the ‘Middlesex,’ of London, bound to the Channel for orders.  We had quite a long conversation with the captain, and parted with mutual good wishes for a pleasant voyage.  It was a lovely moonlight night, but very hot, though we found a delightful sleeping-place beneath the awning on deck.