A good deal more was said on this subject that we have not space for recording, and from meteors the conversation wandered to the moon, and around among the stars generally, till it was bedtime. In the latter part of their talk they were joined by the captain of the ship, who told them that the natives of the Malay peninsula and the coast of Burmah have a remarkable knowledge of astronomy, so far as it relates to the navigation of their sailing craft. "To find our positions at sea," said he, "we must use elaborate instruments and take several observations, particularly in getting our longitude; but these natives will work up their longitude by observations on the stars with a simple apparatus consisting of a stick and a string. The string is twice as long as the stick, and is fastened to its ends; there are several knots on the string and notches on the stick, and by holding this rude instrument in a certain position, and observing the relations between the knots and notches with some of the more prominent stars, they will get their longitude exactly. "It is too late now," said the captain, "or I would tell you about a most remarkable voyage that was made across the Bay of Bengal, a few years ago, by men who had no knowledge whatever of navigation. Perhaps we'll have it to-morrow night." With this remark he left them, and, as before stated, the evening session came to an end at the hour for retiring to sleep. According to promise the captain joined our friends the next evening, and told them of the feat performed by a small party of natives in crossing the Bay of Bengal in an open boat.[4] [4] The story here given was narrated to the author by Captain H. B. Smith, of the British India Steam Navigation Company's ship _Madura_, during a voyage up the east coast of India in 1878. [Illustration: RIVER-BOATS IN BURMAH.] "There were five of them," said the captain, "and they went to sleep in their boat one night, so as to take an early start up the river from Rangoon. The boat was made from a hollowed log, and was about twenty-five feet long by four wide in the centre; it had a mast with a small square sail, like what you generally see on the native boats in the East, and its sides were not more than a foot above water. This was the craft that safely carried five men a thousand miles across the open sea. "They went to sleep, as I said, and when they waked in the morning, just at dawn, they found themselves at sea. The boat had become untied from the stake where it was fastened; the strong current of the river, with the ebb-tide, had floated them down at a rapid rate, and before they knew it they were out of sight of land.