We had sighted several sail during the day, three of them being European, bound to the westward, while the rest were country craft-- small coasters and fishing vessels for the most part. The Malays have probably, next to the Chinese, the worst reputation in the world for honesty; but it is only just to say that, with one solitary exception, all the native craft we had that day fallen in with had behaved in a manner that left no room whatever for suspicion. The exception was in the case of a large proa that had passed us closely, running out before the wind toward the mouth of the straits during the forenoon, but which, having run to leeward of us for a distance of some six miles, had then hauled her wind and stretched in toward the southern shore, on reaching which she had lowered her canvas, thrown out her sweeps, and made her way to windward with the aid of the latter alone. It was not so much this circumstance, however, though it had a somewhat incomprehensible look about it, as the fact that she pulled twelve sweeps of a side-- proving her to be heavily manned--that caused us to regard her and her movements with a certain amount of doubt and suspicion. We were now in waters that, from the numerous acts of piracy that have been committed within them, have acquired a more sinister reputation than is borne by any other spot of ocean of similar area in the whole world; and it was therefore only natural that the fact of our being becalmed in such a spot should have been productive of a certain uneasiness and disquiet of mind throughout the ship. At sunset, and for an hour or two afterwards, there was every prospect of a fine clear night; but at about two bells in the first watch a thin veil of vapour began to gather in the sky, gradually thickening and blotting out the stars until they were all completely hidden, when the darkness became profound. At this time--or rather, when we had last had an opportunity of distinguishing distant objects--there were only some eight or ten craft, all native, in sight, the nearest of which was fully four miles distant; and they all, without exception, presented an appearance of perfect honesty. Three or four of them were, like ourselves, drifting idly, with their heads pointing in as many different directions; the others had rigged out a sweep, or in some cases a pair, and were slowly making their way inshore.