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My two other travelling companions are 2 young men both born in [[underline]] Pondicherry in India, [[/underline]] [[strikethrough]] near [[/strikethrough]] a French Colony near Madras One is Hindustanese, short and fat and ^[[dark brown]] smiling and speaks good French is about 20 years old and is some kind of town [[underline]] "fonctionnaire", [[/underline]] commis probably in the engineering department. Very good natured and smiling and a Roman Catholic The other [[underline]] George Du Moulin, [[/underline]] is as white as anybody, looks entirely as a [[underline]] Frenchman or North Italian, [[/underline]] with much swagger. Has been in the war and in other French Colonies like to talk about it and is a sergeant in the [[underline]] Police [[/underline]] Force. His French is not so good but he speaks 3 or 4 words of English which he has picked up during
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the war. Both are travelling "aux frais de l'administration" and are astonished that I should have to pay. The country thru which we pass is well cultivated and a succession of [[underline]] rice fields and coconut [[/underline]] and Orech palms. with here and there a [[underline]] few huts, [[/underline]] or villages.  Numerous [[underline]] sampans [[/underline]] and ^[[small]] [[underline]] sailboats [[/underline]] everywhere. Fishing nets, fish traps etc., a characteristic landscape of the settled Far East.
Boat stops at many small villages. Captain is a taciturn blond haired blue-eyed chap. - [[underline]] probably Breton [[/underline]] but nothing cheerful nor inviting about him. An Annamite and a [[underline]] Cambodgeon in sarong, [[/underline]] are his [[strikethrough]] 1st [[/strikethrough]] 2d and third officers. He cries his command in [[underline]] French [[/underline]] and his assistants repeat them

Transcription Notes:
commis is the French word for clerk