When we reached the Straits of Sunda it was whispered around that we might have an affair with the pirates that infest this region. The captain had all the guns carefully overhauled and made ready for work; and for a week or more the crew of each gun had been trained so as to know what to do. We carried the same armament as did the Washington, about which I have already told the reader. The arm-chest was brought up, and the guns and pistols which it contained were cleaned and prepared for service; and the men who claimed to be most efficient with these weapons were detailed to handle them in case their use became necessary. In fact, we got ourselves all ready to meet the pirates, and some of the younger sailors were rather disappointed when we passed safely into the China Sea without encountering any of them. These Malay pirates are a great pest and annoyance to mariners; and I wonder that the civilized nations do not band together and wipe them out of existence. But I've already wondered why they don't do the same thing with the Algerine pirates; and I suppose I may keep on wondering about these things for the rest of my life. In one respect the Malays are worse than the Algerines. When the Malays capture a ship they kill everybody on board, sparing neither age nor sex; while the Algerines rarely kill anybody, except in actual fighting, reserving their prisoners to sell them into slavery. Whether this mercy is due solely to their cupidity or for other reasons I am unable to say. I said we did not encounter any Malay pirates; but we should have done so, had it not been for a wind that came up one afternoon. We were becalmed in a channel, about six miles wide, between two islands. It was a dead calm, and the only motion there was on the ship was given to her by the current that carried us along perhaps half a mile per hour. While we lay there we saw a long boat, full of men, pulling along the coast of one of the islands, and disappearing among the trees that fringe the shore. Presently we saw the same boat, with two others of similar size and appearance, coming out from among the trees and steering in our direction. There seemed to be about forty men in each boat, twenty of them rowing or paddling, and another twenty standing or sitting idle.