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Malayan lands which as yet were free from the aggression of the filibusters of Portugal.

But this evening the beach was thronged more densely than was common, and there was withal a subtle restlessness, a tenseness of expectancy in the air. Word had reached Malacca of the approach of the mysterious strangers from afar, the men with the bearded faces and the corpse-like complexions, the rumour of whose evil doings. on the Coramandel coast had carried into the remotest corners of the East. The besetting peril was at hand, even at the gates of the city, but how it might be averted, stayed or met were problems surpassing the wis- dom of the wisest.

And then, before the last of the daylight died, as the mobs of gaily clad natives stood upon the shores, op- pressed by fear, restless with suspense, their dark faces darker in the gathering gloom, suddenly the West was upon them ere they well knew it. The fleet of Dal- boquerque, "all decked with flags, and the men sounding their trumpets," swept into sight from behind the shelter- ing islands to the north, the great bellying squares of strangely rigged canvas catching the faint breeze. On and on it came, inevitable as Fate, the Power of the West sailing into the heart of Malaya unresisted and ir- resistible, and with panic in its heart the East stood in impotence watching it from the shore. One by one the vessels came to anchor, and then from all there roared a salvo of artillery, the salute of the white men to their victims, an explosion that broke upon the peace of the quiet sccnc and sounded the knell of the brown man's