His aspect was serene.

He had a belief in his own prosperity which nothing could shake.
Restless, like all his people, he very seldom dwelt for many days together in his splendid house in Penang.

Owner of ships, he was often on board one or another of them, traversing in all directions the field of his operations.

In every port he had a household--his own or that of a relation--to hail his advent with demonstrative joy.

In every port there were rich and influential men eager to see him, there was business to talk over, there were important letters to read: an immense correspondence, enclosed in silk envelopes--a correspondence which had nothing to do with the infidels of colonial post-offices, but came into his hands by devious, yet safe, ways.