Includes bibliographical references.

Foreword/Victor T. King--Introduction/J. Gullick--1.The Portuguese Take Malacca/Tome Pires--2.Magellan the Missionary/Antonio Pigafetta--3.Malacca and Batavia (Jakarta) under Dutch Control/Balthasar Bort & George Earl--4.Raffles at Minangkabau/Thomas Stamford Raffles--5.A Holiday in Java/Charles Walter Kinloch--6.Francois Garnier on the Move/Hugh Clifford--7.From Mandalay to Bhamo/Edward Sladen--8.A Regional Market at Dobo in Eastern Indonesia/Alfred Russel Wallace --9.A British Envoy at the Court of Ava/Henry Yule--10.King Mongkut Faces the Camera/John Thomson--11. Palace Dancers at a Malay Court/Frank Swettenham--12.Sultan Yusuf Faces Death - and Turns Back/Hugh Clifford--13.A Naturalist All at Sea/Alfred Russel Wallace--14.A Friendly Encounter with Illanun Pirates/James Biooke--15.Cholera on a Chinese Junk/Hugh Clifford--16.A Volcanic Eruption at Ternate/John Dill Ross.

17.A Narrow Escape from Death/Emily Innes--18.A Ramble through Saigon/Isabella Bird--19.Alone on Timor with Malaria/Anna Forbes--20.Stranded in Semenyih/Ethel Hume--21.A Rather Sorry Affair/Frank Swettenham--22.Ceremonial Reception of a White Elephant/Carl Block--23.The Old Man - a Pet Orang-utan/William Hornaday--24.The Destruction of the Fort at Malacca/Abdullah Bin Abdul Kadir--25. The British Go into Action/Peter Begbie--26.A German on the Run in the Philippines/Lowell Thomas--27.At the Base Camp of the Burma-Siam Railway/Robert Hardie--28.A Spanish View of the Native Customs of Luzon/Antonio De Morga--29. Ghosts at the Ruins of Royal Ava/Maurice Collis--30.A Primitive Hill Tribe of Cambodia/Henri Mouhot--31.A Market Town in Southern Borneo/Carl Lock--32.A Dying-house in Singapore/Donald Moore--33.Life in a Borneo Longhouse/Charles Hose.

34.Yusuf Reunited with his Mother in Central Java/Arthur Keyser.

"Exotic cultures, strange lands, and proud monarchies confronted the Portuguese and Spaniards who came to South-East Asia in the sixteenth century with the practical objectives of securing control of the profitable trade in export of spices to Europe, and - to a lesser extent - of combating Islam, their traditional foe in the Mediterranean. The pursuit of commercial and strategic advantages brought the Dutch, English, and French on their heels. Later still, the nineteenth century saw the arrival of explorers seeking to discover the sources of the great rivers of the region, naturalists who ranged far afield to collect specimens, and literary travellers, professional photographers, married women, and other visitors who recorded their experiences." "This anthology offers selections from the abundant range of European writing, expressing the fascination, the excitement, and sometimes the violence or danger of personal adventures and encounters in South-East Asia. It is the work of a talented minority who found delight in a strange world of their time, a world which is rapidly changing and vanishing. These writers have left a vivid record for the entertainment of the modern reader."--BOOK JACKET.