George Windsor Earl's contemporary description of the arrival of Chinese junks in the ports of Singapore during the 1830s. I LOVE it!

The first junk, which arrives generally a little before Christmas, is most anxiously looked for, and when its approach is notified by the crew of a Malay sampan which has been on the lookout to the eastward, the greatest bustle pervades the Chinese community. Many hasten off to the vessel to learn the news from China...The first boat reaches the junk when she is still several miles distant, and as she nears the town she gains an accession of bulk at every fathom, until at last the unwieldy mass slowly trails into the roads, surrounded by a dense mass of boats, having the appearance of a locust which has inadvertently crossed an ants' nest and is dragging after it countless myriads of the enraged inhabitants, attached to its legs and feelers.

LOVE IT!