more from the love of adventure than for any other reason, they
decided to proceed to Bangkok, and to make the voyage of nine hundred
miles in the Blanchita, as they had named the steam-launch, which voyage
was accomplished without accident.

After the young explorers had looked over the capital of Siam, the
Guardian-Mother and her consort made the voyage to Saigon, the capital
of French Cochin-China, where the visit of the tourists was a general
frolic, with "lots of fun," as the young people expressed it; and then,
crossing the China Sea, made the port of Manila, the capital of the
Philippine Islands, where they explored the city, and made a trip up the
Pasig to the Lake of the Bay. From this city they made the voyage to
Hong-Kong, listening to a very long lecture on the way in explanation of
the history, manners, and customs, and the peculiarities of the people
of China. They were still within the tropics, and devoted themselves to
the business of sight-seeing with the same vigor and interest as before.
But most of them had read so much about China, as nearly every American
has, that many of the sights soon began to seem like an old story to
them.

Passing out of the Torrid Zone, the two steamers proceeded to the north,
obtaining a long view of Formosa, and hearing a lecture about it. Their
next port of call was Shang-hai, reached by ascending the Woo-Sung. From
this port they made an excursion up the Yang-tsze-Chiang, which was an
exceedingly interesting trip to them. The ships then made the voyage to
Tien-tsin, from which they ascended by river in the steam-launch to a
point thirteen miles from Pekin, going from there to the capital by the
various modes of conveyance in use in China. They visited the sights of
the great city under the guidance of a mandarin, educated at Yale
College. Some of the party made the trip to the loop-wall, near Pekin.
Returning to Tien-tsin, with the diplomatic mandarin, who had accepted
an invitation to go to Japan in the Guardian-Mother, they sailed for
that interesting country, where the next volume of the series will take
them.

It may be necessary to say that the Guardian-Mother, now eighteen months
from New York, and half round the world, reached Tien-tsin May 25, 1893;
and therefore nothing relating to the late war between China and Japan
is to be found in this volume. Possibly the four young explorers would
have found more sights to see, and more adventures to enjoy, if they had