rvoir, which furnishes all the water supply. We went on and on until
we reached the "Gap," where a mountain view awaited us. We visited the
shops and bazars before luncheon, and in the afternoon all of us
explored the native Malay quarter. The dress of the women was unlike any
other seen in the Orient. The Chinese seemed to be the real residents,
for everywhere they prevailed in large numbers.

In whatever direction we went, new features revealed themselves, and we
commended the wisdom of Sir Stamford Raffles in founding this island
city with its wonderful harbor, where shipping from almost all parts of
the world congregates, making the active sights at the quay at once
novel and business-like. Indians, Sikhs, Malays, and other nationalities
are represented, but the Chinese perform all the menial labor required.

The coolie is a character,--patient, hard-working, uncomplaining,
supplying a demand throughout the Orient, made necessary, as we have
seen, by the indolence of the Burmese and of the Malays, to mention only
two examples.

Singapore is very gay in the season, and a centre for the wealth of the
Far East; indeed, sultans and nabobs consider it a veritable Paris.

The last morning of our stay, I went around in a jinrikisha, and my man
was as fleet as a horse. I had an experience trying to find so simple an
article as a paper of pins, visiting shop after shop. Evidently they
have not learned the ways of the American department store!

* * * * *

HONG-KONG: We sailed in the late afternoon on the steamer _Moltke_ for a
five days' voyage to Hong-Kong, with a feeling that we had experienced
no discomfort but much pleasure in the seemingly maligned city of
Singapore.

We passed the Strait of Malacca without any untoward excitement, and we
steamed along pleasantly with a group of passengers who looked well-bred
and agreeable; as time went on, our first impression of them was
corroborated. A delightful feature aboard was music every evening in the
salon, mostly singing. There was a service on Sunday, both for the
first-class and second-class passengers. We soon entered the China Sea,
which was to be our sole waterway to Hong-Kong, fifteen hundred miles
distant, or rather to the Straits of Formosa, which guard the China
Sea on the north, as the Strait of Malacca does on the south. We reached
port on the morning of March 20th, and the approach--past many islands,
along the fine harbor,