st intense heat and keen tropical
discomfort. The Duke and Duchess were received at Singapore in a
pavilion hung with flags and flowers, by the Governor, Sir Frank
Swettenham, and by the Sultans of Pahang, Perak and Selangor. This
interesting trading centre, with its four hundred and fifty million
dollars' worth of commerce and its population of mingled Chinese, Dutch
and Germans, was ablaze with decorations and filled with holiday-makers.
A Royal reception was held in the Town-Hall on April 22nd attended by
Chinese, Arabs, Malays, Tamils and representatives of all the medley of
blood which makes up the East. There were a dozen deputations bringing
addresses and adding to the steadily accumulating caskets of gold and
silver and ivory and precious stones which the Duke was destined to
possess in a measure only excelled by his Royal father's collection in
the past.

The Malays contributed an elephant's tusk set in gold, the men of Penang
a great bamboo set in gold, and the Chinese of Malaya a fire-screen
worked with Oriental skill and beauty. After this ceremony, and
including dinner, the Duke and Duchess drove through the Chinese
quarters and in the evening witnessed the strange procession of figured
reptiles and demons, dragons and monsters of distorted fancy, which
marked Chinese pleasure and indicated the loyalty of the coolies as
their costly decorations and caskets and the presence at functions of
richly-dressed men and women had already illustrated the loyalty of the
merchant class. An incident of the afternoon was the singing by five
thousand school-children of mixed Eastern races and the presentation of
a bouquet to the Duchess. The effect of "God Save the King" in their
quaint, native accents was described as being strangely pathetic. On the
following morning the _Ophir_ steamed out of the harbour bound for
Australia and left eastern civilization behind for the forms and customs
of England transplanted upon Australian soil. The shores of Sumatra were
coasted, the Straits of Banka, the Sea of Java and the beautiful Straits
of Sunda were traversed; the Equator was crossed and His Royal Highness
willingly subjected to the quaint and immemorial usages of the occasion;
the Indian Ocean traversed and two thousand five hundred miles of this
part of the journey experienced before the shores of the
island-continent were sighted on May 1st.

The formal landing at Melbourne, for which all Australia was looking,
took plac