"At night the air is full of fire-flies, and sometimes they are so brilliant that they resemble a torch-light procession just breaking up. Then the natives kindle fires under the trees to cook their meals; and, as you ride or walk along the roads, the scene is a curious one, as the figures of these dark-skinned people are brought into strong relief by the light. [Illustration: A TRAVELLING BLACKSMITH.] "You see so many Chinese in Penang that you can easily believe you are in Shanghai or Hong-Kong. They are everywhere, and in all kinds of business, from the most important to the most humble; they are wholesale merchants of every name and kind, and they practise all the industries known to civilization. There are Chinese tailors, carpenters, shoemakers, blacksmiths, jewellers, cabinet-makers, and anything else you might name, besides a variety of trades you couldn't think of. Most of them work in shops, but there are many blacksmiths, cobblers, and others, who go from house to house, and carry their tools in baskets. "The banks have Chinese clerks to keep the accounts and handle the money, and every European merchant in Penang has a comprador, the same as the merchants in Yokohama and Hong-Kong. You can hardly do anything in the way of buying or selling without coming in contact with a Chinese, and even if you try to avoid them you cannot. In commercial matters the Chinese have full control, and the European merchants complain that their profits are very light owing to the sharp competition of their Oriental rivals. Every year the Chinese are gaining in business, while the Europeans are diminishing; and the gentleman who told us about them says it is only a question of time, and not a long time at that, before all the trade of Penang will be in the hands of the Chinese. "They are not only in Georgetown, but all over the island of Penang, and on the main-land. Some of them have been here for many years, and either brought wives from China, or married Malay ones; they have no intention of going back to China but will end their days in Penang. The most of these old settlers are rich, and have fine houses, with magnificent gardens filled with fruits and flowers; but there are plenty of poor settlers who cultivate the soil, and live in modest huts among their market-gardens and pepper-fields. A large part of the agriculture of the island, and of the neighboring province on the main-land, is in Chinese hands, and if all the people of the Flowery Kingdom were driven out of the Malay Peninsula and the adjacent islands, there wouldn't be much business left. Several times the Government has had trouble with them owing to their guilds and combinations; and on two or three occasions they have openly defied the laws, and refused to be bound by them. The garrisons of troops at Penang, Singapore, and other points are necessary to keep the Chinese in order, as no one can tell when they may make a serious disturbance.