s has marked the time by the drip of water from a hidden
spring. The masonry of this water-clock building looks very ancient, and
the clock is reached by several long flights of granite stairs.

After viewing the clock we reached the wall and passed through the big
south gates, which are fully six inches thick, of massive iron, studded
with large nails. Outside on the bund were drawn up several rapid-fire
guns belonging to Admiral Li, the efficient head of the Chinese navy at
Canton, who also had a score of trim little gunboats patrolling the
river. These boats had rapid-fire guns at bow and stern.

So we came back to the Canton hospital, where we had luncheon. After
this I made my way back to the steamer, to find her crowded with over
one thousand refugees from the old city, with their belongings. The
decks and even the dining saloon were choked with these people, and
during the two hours before the boat sailed at least three hundred more
passengers were taken on board. We sailed in the late afternoon and were
followed by four other river steamers, carrying in all over six thousand
refugees.

SINGAPORE THE MEETING PLACE OF MANY RACES

Of all the places in the Orient, the most cosmopolitan is Singapore, the
gateway to the Far East; the one city which everyone encircling the
globe is forced to visit, at least for a day. Hongkong streets may have
seemed to present an unparalleled mixture of races; Canton's narrow
alleys may have appeared strange and exotic; but Singapore surpasses
Honkong in the number and picturesqueness of the races represented in
its streets, as it easily surpasses Canton in strange sights and in
swarming toilers from many lands that fill the boats on its canals and
the narrow, crooked streets that at night glow with light and resound
with the clamor of alien tongues.

Singapore is built on an island which adjoins the extreme end of the
Malay Peninsula. It is about sixty miles from the equator, and it has a
climate that varies only a few degrees from seventy during the entire
year. This heat would not be debilitating were it not for the extreme
humidity of the atmosphere. To a stranger, especially if he comes from
the Pacific Coast, the place seems like a Turkish bath. The slightest
physical exertion makes the perspiration stand out in beads on the face.

Singapore has a population of over three hundred thousand people; it has
a great commercial business, which is growing every year; it already