"When we were at Manilla, we learned that the Chinese in the Philippine Islands were not always easy to control, and had twice broken into open insurrection. The first time was in 1603, when 23,000 Chinese were slaughtered by the Spanish troops and people; and the second was about fifty years later, when 25,000 were killed, and the rest, amounting to six or eight thousand, were banished. But others came to fill their places, and there have been no more insurrections, though quite often they narrowly escape them. "It is fair to say, on behalf of the Chinese, that their insurrections in the Philippine Islands were brought about by excessive taxes and religious persecutions; at least we are so informed by the historians who have written on the subject. In Penang there is no danger of trouble on this account, as the inhabitants have the fullest liberty in the matter of religion, and the taxes are the same for all nationalities. "It was late when we got back to the steamer, and, as we were pretty tired, we went straight to bed. When we rose in the morning, we were steaming out of the harbor; and so ended our visit to Penang." CHAPTER XI. SHOOTING-STARS AND THEIR CHARACTER.--A REMARKABLE VOYAGE. The voyage from Penang to Rangoon was an agreeable one for our young friends, as the sea was not disturbed by storms, and the temperature on deck, both night and day, was delightful. In the cabins it was too warm for comfort, as the iron sides of the ship absorbed a great deal of heat, and the arrangements for ventilation were not able to carry it off. The passengers slept on deck beneath the triple awning that covered the whole stern of the ship, and the boys had a table arranged there where they wrote their journals, and the letters describing what they had seen. The evenings were devoted to conversation on whatever topics happened to come up, and before they reached Rangoon the boys had made a material addition to their already extensive stock of information. The distance from Penang to Rangoon is 1194 miles, and the steamer took five days to make the voyage. Consequently, the boys had all the time they wished for bringing their writing up to date, and getting ready for the new sights and sensations that awaited them in Burmah. [Illustration: FIRST VIEW OF THE METEOR.] On their first evening out from Penang the travellers were sitting near the stern of the steamer, and gazing out over the moonlit waters. The stars were bright in the sky, and the boys were designating the various clusters and constellations, as they had learned them at school, when suddenly there was a flash of light about half-way from the horizon to the zenith, and directly in their line of vision. Then it moved across the heavens from right to left, with a slightly downward course, and, as the youths fixed their eyes upon it, there was an appearance of an explosion, and the sky assumed its former aspect. [Illustration: EXPLOSION OF THE METEOR.]